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Fundamental  Conditions 

of  the 

Economic  Independence 
of  Poland 


BY  JOSEPH  FREILICH.  PH.  D. 


f Tranalated  from  the  Frenchj 


CHICAGO 

POUSH  NATIONAL  DEFENSE  COMMITTEE 

1918 


PRES£«V«TION  sC   ^^ 

COPY  AODED  \\^     ^  <^ 

ORIGiNALTOBE  O  A  ^ 

RETAINED  \ 


GIFT 


Copyright  1918 
by  Polish  National  Defense  Committee. 


•  ••    ••   •'«'     •«••••     •    •' 


ISO 
Polish  Peoples  Publishing  Co.,  Chicago,  HI. 


PREFACE 

The  problem  of  the  economic  independence  of 
Poland,  as  the  question  of  economic  independence 
of  state  organisms,  in  general,  is  one  of  the  most 
complicated  problems  of  political  economy. 

For  it  is  certain  that  now,  in  this  economic 
period  of  the  twentieth  century,  characterized  by 
a  world-wide  exchange  of  merchandise,  there  does 
not  exist  a  single  state  organism  which  is  econo- 
mically independent  in  the  strict  sen'se  of  the  word. 
Even  the  most  powerful  contemporary  states,  from 
an  economic  point  of  view,  that  possess  enormous 
forces  of  production  and  consumption,  are  not  self- 
sufficient  and  can  barely  carry  on  an  isolated  econo- 
mic life.  They  are  obliged  to  depend  to  a  great  extent 
on  the  politico-economics  of  other  organisms,  either 
as  consumers  or  as  producers  but  generally  as  con- 
sumers and  producers  at  the  same  time.  Only  the 
earth,  considered  as  a  whole,  constitutes  a  complete 
economic  organism  which  is  sufficient  unto  itself^ 
since  naturally,  it  is  forced  to  be  so. 


.•4  \* 


But,  the  different  parts  of  this  organism,  the 
'States  and  countries  that  make  up  its  constituent 
parts,  cannot  possess  absolute,  economic  independ- 
ence :  they  are  political  organisms  endowed  only 
with  relative  economic  independence. 

So  examining,  in  our  study,  the  conditions  and 
factors  of  economic  independence  in  Poland,  we  can 
have  in  view  only  those  elements  that,  deciding  the 
degree  of  her  independence,  result  chiefly  from  the 
favorable  situation  of  the  elementary  factors  that, 
in  the  largest  sense  of  the  word,  determine  modern 
production,  that  is :  natural  resources,  human  work 
and  capital.  In  addition  to  these  principal  factors 
there  are  still  other  important  elements  that  must 
be  considered,  namely:  the  geographical  situation 
of  the  country,  access  to  the  sea,  and  general  means 
of  communication  with  the  world  at  large,  that  is  to 
say,  with  all  the  other  economic  organizations  of 
our  globe. 

The  Polish  lands,  at  the  present  divided 
between  the  three  partitioning  States,  Prussia,  Rus- 
sia and  Austria,  condemned  for  more  than  one  hund- 
red and  forty  years  to  vegetate  in  political  and  eco- 
nomical conditions  entirely  different,  often  opposed, 
considered  as  a  whole,  as  one  political  and 
economical  unit,  undoubtedly  respond  to  the 
conditions  required  by  theory  and  practice,  for 
the  existence  and  development  of  independent,  eco- 
nomic organisms.  All  of  these  conditions  and  factors, 
especially  the  natural  wealth  of  Poland,  and  her 
geographical  situation,  by  virtue  of  which  her  natu- 
ral and  artificial  ways  of  communication  connect 
western  Europe  with  the  Orient,  the  Baltic  Sea  with 
the  Black  Sea,  all  these    essential    and    secondary 


factors  show  that  the  Polish  lands,  as  a  whole,  con- 
solidated into  a  state  organization,  will  form  a  great 
economic  organism,  in  the  center  of  Europe  end- 
owed with  a  serious  force  of  expansion,  possessing 
a  degree  of  independence  equal,  at  least,  to  tliat  of 
the  other  countries  of  Europe  which  have  been 
looked  upon  as  economic  organisms  eminently  in- 
dependent. 

The  aim  of  this  work  is  to  retrace  and  to  deter- 
mine the  conditions  and  factors  which  constitute 
the  basis  of  the  economic  independence  of  Poland. 
It  is  proposed  to  show  the  industrial  evolution  of 
Poland  and  to  place  in  evidence  the  principal  condi- 
tions that  would  considerably  accelerate  and  facilit- 
ate this  evolution. 

The  degree  of  economic  development  of  every 
politico-economic  organism  depends  essentially  upon 
its  industrial  development  in  quantity  as  well  as  in 
quality.  The  more  a  state  possesses  the  character 
of  an  industrial  organism,  the  more  apt  will  its  in- 
dustrial production  be  to  meet  the  competition  of 
the  world  markets  with  success ;  the  more  will  such 
an  organism  be  considered  as  developed,  firmly 
established  and  as  possessing  in  itself  the  elements 
of  its  future  expansion. 

Although  before  the  European  war,  Poland  did 
not  have  a  distinctive  industrial  character,  although 
much  of  her  territory  was  agricultural,  still  taken  as 
a  whole,  she  possesses  the  fundamental  conditions 
necessary  to  become  an  immense  European  in- 
dustrial workshop.  But,  in  order  that  this  may  come 
to  pass,  the  political  and  economic  causes  that  have 
hindered  the  normal  development  of  industry  must 
be  eliminated.  The  principal  cause  was  the  dismem- 


G 


berment  of  the  Polish  economic  organism  by  the 
three  sharing  States. 

The  formation  of  an  independent  Polfsh  state, 
including  all  Polish  territories,  is  a  necessary  con- 
dition of  the  future  economic  development  of  Po- 
land, and  therefore,  of  the  political  and  cultural 
development  of  that  part  of  the  European  continent 
comprised  between  the  Baltic  Sea  and  the  Car- 
pathians, between  the  Odra  and  the  Polesie. 


I. 

THE  INDUSTRIAL  POLICY  OF  THE  PO- 
LAND -  SHARING  STATES  AND  THE 
ECONOMIC  INTERESTS  OF  POLAND 

The  economic  life  of  the  country  of  the  Poles, 
especially  the  industrial  production,  has  developed 
under  the  unequal,  and  generally  unfavorable  con- 
ditions brought  about  by  the  economic  policies  of 
the  three  sharing  States.  These  policies  are  essen- 
tially different  for  each  part  of  Poland  and  take  into 
very  little  or  no  account  whatever  Polish  interests 
and  requirements. 

In  the  Kingdom  of  Poland,  (the  part  held  by 
Russia)  Which  is  the  part  of  Poland  most  developed 
economically,  the  foundations  of  the  national  in- 
dustry were  established  by  the  local  government  of 
the  Kingdom  formed  at  the  Congress  of  Vienna  in 
1815.  A  wide  and  methodical  movement  to  im- 
prove and  increas-e  the  industry  of  the  country  was 
undertaken  by  the  government.  All  the  merit 
of  having  brought  the  manufacturing  industry  to 
life  and  of  having  assured  its  progress  should  go  to 
Prince  Xavier  Francois  Lubecki,  Treasurer  of  the 
young  Kingdom  and  in  charge  of  the  direction  of 
its  finances  toward  the  end  of  the  year  1821. 


8 


Conducted  systematically  and  with  great  energy 
by  Lubecki,  the  industrial  movement  of  the  King- 
dom developed  in  two  different  directions.  First, 
new  industrial  centers  were  protected  and  others 
created  for  the  benefit  of  the  Treasury.  Then  profit- 
able foreign  markets  were  secured  for  the  national 
products.  The  question  of  opening  up  outside  mar- 
kets in  Russia  and  the  Extreme  Orient,  for  the 
products  of  the  Kingdom ;  in  other  words,  the  ques- 
tions of  transit  and  customs  relations  between  the 
Kingdom  of  (Poland  and  Russia,  were  regulated 
through  Lubecki  in  a  most  satisfactory  manner. 

In  fact,  after  this  settlement  of  the  custom 
relations  on  the  basis  of  the  tariff  of  1822-24,  the 
exchange  of  merchandise  between  the  Kingdom  and 
Russia  could  be  carried  on  almost  without  import 
duty.  The  commercial  policy  of  Russia  at  that  time 
was  highly  prohibitive  toward  the  western  States, 
while  the  Kingdom  of  Poland  possessed  an  auto- 
nomous Polish-Prussian  and  Polish-Austrian  tariff 
(decisions  of  the  trilateral  commission;  treaty  of 
1818  with  Prussia,  and  of  1819  with  Austria).  This 
situation  had  a  very  favorable  influence  upon  the 
development  of  the  young  and  rising  industry  of 
Poland. 

The  Kingdom  of  Poland  became  in  part  the 
finishing  shop  of  foreign  half-made  products,  espe- 
cially Prussian,  which  finally  reached  Russia  as 
Polish  products  and,  because  of  the  Polish-Russian 
customs  conventions,  almost  without  import  duty. 
Besides  this  system  of  custom  relations,  outlined 
above,  between  the  Kingdom  of  Poland  and  the 
Western  countries  on  the  one  hand,  and  Russia  on 


the  other,  was  favorable  to  a  brilliant  expansion  of 
Polish  industry,  especially  the  woolen  cloth  industry. 

The  .unfortunate  result  of  the  Polish  insurrec- 
tion of  1830-31  was  felt  not  only  in  the  political  and 
cultural  life  of  the  Kingdom  but  in  its  economical 
life  as  well.  The  Russian  government,  as  soon  as  the 
ilames  of  the  revolutionary  fires  were  smothered, 
made  haste  to  modify  the  Polish-Russian  custom 
and  commercial  conventions,  which  as  has  been 
stated,  had  such  a  very  favorable  influence  upon  the 
development  of  the  economic  life  of  Poland. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  month  of  November, 
1831,  new  custom  tariffs  for  transit  goods  were 
worked  out  and  introduced,  that  were  to  regulate 
the  exchange  of  merchandise  between  the  Kingdom 
and  Russia.  These  new  rates  were  manifestly  dis- 
advantageous to  Polish  industry  and  commerce  and 
were  made  purposely  as  reprisals.  The  result 
was  an  important  emigration  of  Polish  manufac- 
turers. Some  moved  their  manufactories  into  Russia, 
while  others  built  new  factories  on  the  other  side  of 
the  customs  frontiers  but  still  near  the  Kingdom. 
Thus,  the  growth  of  industry  in  and  about  Bialy- 
stok  began. 

However,  notwithstanding  the  severe  Russian 
custom  tariff  reprisals,  that  lasted  nearly  twenty 
years,  Polish  industry  did  not  die  out.  Only  those 
enterprises  that  were  financially  weak  and  without 
■economic  vitality  were  ruined.  Instead,  the  industry 
of  the  Kingdom  spread  out  into  new  lines  of  produc- 
tion and  began,  in  larger  measure,  to  take  into  ac- 
count the  needs  of  the  home  markets,  and,  though 
less  rapidly  than  in  the  time  of  the  constitutional 
Kingdom  of  the  Congress,  continued  to  develop. 


10 


The  year  1850  was  a  turning-point  in  the  history 
of  the  politico-economics  of  Russian-Poland.  Under 
the  influence  of  different  important  factors,  the 
Russian  government  decided,  towards  the  end  of  the 
forties  of  the  last  century,  to  break  off  from  the 
prohibitive  system  and  to  replace  it  by  a  more  lib- 
eral tariff.  At  the  same  time,  in  St.  Petersburg,  (for 
purely  political  reasons),  the  question  of  the  unifica- 
tion of  the  Polish-Russian  customs  and  of  extending 
the  new  Russian  tariff  to  the  western  frontiers  of 
the  Kingdom  of  Poland  was  brought  up.  After  long 
deliberations  and  preparatory  work,  the  project  of 
the  unification  was  realized  in  April,  1850.  It  was 
then  towards  the  end  of  1850  that  the  independent 
position  of  the  Kingdom  of  Poland  (in  its  commer- 
cial policies)  was  suppressed.  Since  then  this  part 
of  Poland  has  remained  incorporated  in  the  econo- 
mic organism  of  Russia,  and  as  a  result  of  this,  the 
industry  of  the  Kingdom  has  developed  within  the 
limits  of  conditions  created  by  the  Russian  tariff 
policy  and,  in  general,  by  the  Russian  economic  po- 
licy. 

The  suppression  of  the  Polish-Russian  custom 
frontier  was  of  great  importance  to  Polish  industry. 
The  Russian  markets  opened  to  Polish  industrial 
products,  and  transit  commerce  with  the  markets  of 
Oriental  Asia  again  sprang  into  life.  Moreover,  the 
new  Russian  customs  tariffs,  without  giving  com- 
mercial liberty,  allowed  a  certain  liberalism.  They 
were  favorable  to  the  interests  of  the  Kingdom  of 
Poland  by  their  relatively  low  import  duties  on  raw 
materials  and  textile  half-products.  Then  too,  they 
hindered  the  foreign  importation  of  certain  productvS 
(sugar,  alcohol,  beer)  and  favored  the  development 


11 


of  the  principal  agricultural  branches  of  industry  of 
the  country. 

The  utter  change  brought  about  in  1850  in  Po- 
lish-Russian tariff  and  commercial  relations,  and  in 
the  tariff  policy  of  Russia  itself,  contributed  to  the 
progressive  transformation  of  industry.  A  series  of 
secondary  causes  (the  blockade  of  Russian  ports 
during  the  Crimean  War,  construction  of  railroads 
in  Poland  and  Russia  and  the  economic  conse- 
quences of  the  next  to  the  last  Russian-Turkish 
war)  also  helped  to  change  the  small  industries  and 
manufacturing  establishments  that  existed  before 
1850  into  a  great  capitalistic  industry.  The  strong 
protectionist  tariff  of  Russia,  begun  in  the  seventies 
of  the  last  century,  although  originally  brought  out 
for  fiscal  motives,  accelerated  industrial  concentra- 
tion in  the  Kingdom  and  favored  the  growth  of  new 
establishments  and  new  centers  of  production.  So^ 
during  this  period  of  rigorous  protectionism,  that 
lasted  from  1887  up  to  the  beginning  of  the  Europe- 
an war,  Polish  industry  gained  strength,  acquired 
all  the  attributes  of  a  great  capitalistic  production 
and  showed  a  marked  tendency  toward  concentra- 
tion. Poland  lost,  during  this  period,  the  character 
of  an  agricultural  country  and  (became,  side  by  side 
with  Upper  Silesia,  a  fundamentally  industrial  re- 
gion. 

Although  Polish  industry  has  expanded  prin- 
cipally during  the  last  forty  or  fifty  years,  that  is  to 
say,  during  the  period  of  the  protectionist  policies 
in  Russia,  it  would  be  wrong  to  conclude  that  it  was 
only  because  of  state  protection  that  it  developed,  or 
that  the  Russian  customs  policies  had  only  a  favor- 
able influence  upon  it. 


12 


In  fact  the  aim  of  the  protectionist  customs  po- 
licy, as  well  as  of  all  the  industrial  policies  of  Russia, 
was  above  all,  for  the  protection  of  the  industries  in 
the  Russian  Empire  properly  speaking,  in  those 
provinces  only,  which  were  actually  Russian. 

Likewise  in  transports,  tariffs  and  in  the  whole 
fiscal  question  generally,  the  needs  of  the  Russians 
were  first  taken  into  consideration  and  these  very 
often  clashed  with  the  needs  and  interests  of  Polish 
industry. 

This  partial  attitude  has  become  signally 
obvious  during  the  last  twenty  or  twenty-five  years. 
The  Russian  customs  policy,  that  for  forty  years 
had  been  extremely  protectionist,  first  from  purely 
fiscal  motives,  reached  its  culminating  point  in  1894, 
after  the  conclusion  of  the  treaty  with  Germany. 
Until  then  the  Russian  government  had  protected, 
by  an  adapted  system  of  customs  tariffs,  the  manu- 
facture of  finished  products ;  after  that  they  under- 
took to  protect  the  half-products  and  raw  material. 
The  principal  object  that  led  the  government  to  take 
this  course  was  to  accelerate  or  even  to  create  Rus- 
sian production  of  raw  materials  or  half-products 
such  as  metal  ores,  coal  and  coke,  and  especially 
cotton,  pig-iron,  etc. 

(Polish  industry  suffered  from  this  extension 
of  the  Russian  protectionist  customs  tariffs  be- 
cause it  was  based  in  large  measure  on  the  im- 
portation of  raw  materials  from  abroad.  In  fact, 
there  are  no  cotton  (plantations  in  Poland  or  in 
Europe  and  the  coal  mined  in  the  district  of 
Dombrowa  (that  part  of  the  Silesian-Polish  coal 
district  that  is  in  Russian  Poland)  is  unfit  for  the 
production   of   metallurgical   coke   which   is   indis- 


13 


pensable  in  modern  iron  industry;  the  Polish 
iron-ore  which  contains  only  30  or  40%  of  metal, 
is  only  used  together  with  richer  ores  that  must 
be  imported.  Then  too,  the  relatively  high  import 
duties  on  foreign  cotton  (from  America  and 
Egypt),  on  coke  (from  Upper  Silesia  and  Karwi- 
na-Ostrowa)  and  on  the  ores  (from  Sweden  and 
France),  established  by  the  Russian  government 
to  protect  the  cotton  production  in  the  Caucasus 
and  Turkestan  and  the  coal  and  coke  industry,  as 
well  as  the  metallurgical  products  of  South  Russia, 
have  burdened  considerably  the  industrial  pro- 
duction of  the  Kingdom. 

The  very  high  import  duties  on  cotton  and 
the  different  kinds  of  thread  had  a  most  unfavor- 
able effect  on  the  cotton  industry  of  Russian  Po- 
land. For  although  the  increase  in  the  cost  of  pro-^ 
duction  has  not  hindered  the  powerful  develop- 
ment of  the  Polish  textile  industry,  still  it  has  had 
a  harmful  influence  by  making  competition  with 
the  Russian  textile  industries  on  the  Russian  home 
markets  still  more  difficult.  Moreover,  it  is  only 
because  of  this  high  import  duty  on  foreign  cotton 
that  the  use  of  cotton  from  Turkestan,  and  the 
Caucasus  has  grown  so  extensively  during  the  last 
twenty-five  years.  In  1890,  135,000  tons  of  raw  cot- 
ton were  used  in  the  Kingdom  of  Poland,  of  which 
about  32,000  tons  were  Russian.  In  1900,  270,000 
tons,  of  which  100,000  were  Russian,  and  in  19110, 
355,000  tons,  of  which  about  180,000  were  Russian. 
Thus,  Russian  cotton  of  an  inferior  quality  and  more 
expensive,  is  being  used  more  and  more  because 
of  the  protective  tariff  on  imported  cotton.  During 
the  years  preceding  the  war  the  amount  of  Russian 


14 


cotton  reached  at  least  55%  off  the  entire  quantity 
used. 

The  import  duties  on  coal  and  coke,  as  well 
as  on  iron,  imported  from  western  and  northwest- 
ern countries  of  Europe,  have  also  been  the  cause 
of  much  loss  to  Polish  industry.  Because  of  the 
lack  of  coke  production  in  the  Kingdom  of  Poland, 
the  Polish  metallurgical  industry  has  been  ob- 
liged to  import  coke  from  Upper  Silesia,  Siksia  of 
Cieszyn  and  Opawa.  But  the  Russian  government, 
to  protect  the  coke  production  and  the  metal- 
lurgical industry  of  southern  Russia,  fixed  high 
import  duties  on  coke  ($0.50  a  ton).  Considering 
the  relatively  large  quantities  of  coke  imported 
(55  to  60  thousand  car  loads  a  year)  for  the  metal- 
lurgical factories  and  the  other  industrial  establish- 
ments, these  import  duties  have  burdened,  without 
any  compensation,  the  Polish  metallurgical  pro- 
duction, and  in  consequence,  increased  the  price 
of  pig  iron  and  of  all  metal  products,  machines, 
utensils,  etc.  Thus,  the  Russian  tariff  policy, 
guided  exclusively  by  the  interests  and  needs 
of  Russian  industry,  systematically  caused  great 
losses  to  the  metallurgical  industry  of  Russian  Po- 
land. The  same  thing  may  be  said  of  many  other 
branches  of  Polish  industry.  The  high  duties  on  coal, 
pig-iron  and  other  raw  materials  have  been  directly 
prejudicial  to  many  other  branches  of  Polish  in- 
dustry, as  well. 

The  Russian  transportation  system,  especially 
in  its  tariffs,  also  shows  the  indifference  and  even 
the  ill-will  of  the  Russian  government  toward  the 
needs  and  interests  of  Polish  industry. 

The  lack  of  lines  of  communication  on  land  and 


15 


water,  especially  the  inadequate  railroad  system, 
together  with  the  absolute  subordination  of  the  most 
vital  economic  interests  of  the  country  to  strategical 
considerations,  has  had  a  very  harmful  influence  on 
industrial  production  by  holding  up  the  transporta- 
tion of  raw  materials  and  fuel  to  factories,  by  hin- 
dering the  transportation  of  manufactured  mer- 
chandise and  by  decreasing  the  extent  of  the  home 
market.  Besides  which,  in  certain  parts  of  the  count-- 
ry,  near  the  borders,  for  example,  the  national  pro- 
ducts could  not  withstand  the  competition  of  foreign 
products  because  of  the  irrational  configuration  of 
the  system  of  railroads  that  had  been  built  for  mili- 
tary purposes.  A  striking  example  of  this  abnormal 
situation  was  the  increase  in  the  use  of  coal  from 
Upi>er  Silesia  (that  is  to  say,  according  to  the  fron- 
tiers existing  before  the  war,  foreign  coal)  in  those 
parts  of  the  country  that  could  not  be  reached  except 
in  a  roundabout  and  therefore  more  expensive  way 
from  the  mines  of  Dombrowa.  The  Russian  railroad 
tariff  policy  favored  chiefly  the  importation  of  Rus- 
sian grain,  raw  material  and  textile  products  into 
the  Kingdom  and  abroad  and  at  the  same  time 
limited  the  exportation  from  the  Kingdom  toward 
the  interior  of  Russia  or  .abroad. 

The  Russian  industrial  tax  policy  was  also 
unfavorable  to  the  development  of  Polish  industry, 
as,  in  a  general  way,  all  the  tax  policies  of  Russia 
were.  Competition  was  made  easy  for  industries  that 
were  really  Russian  and  they  showed  great  force  of 
expansion. 

In  a  word,  the  industrial  as  well  a*s  the  economic 
policy  of  Russia,  taken  in  a  general  sense,  was 
marked  by  indifference  and  ill-will  towards  the  real 


16 


economic  needs  of  Polish  industry  and  towards  the 
entire  economic  life  of  Poland.  In  the  old  conflict 
between  the  industries  of  the  Kingdom  of  Poland 
and  those  of  Russia  proper,  that  reached  its  height 
in  the  competition  between  the  textile  industries  of 
the  two  countries  —  in  the  struggle  between  Lodz 
and  Moscow,  the  Russian  government  openly  took 
the  part  of  Moscow.  This  government  protection 
given  to  Russian  industries  made  competition,  on 
the  markets  of  Russia  and  the  Extreme  Orient,  much 
more  difficult  for  Polish  industries.  Still  more  sig- 
nificant, the  consequence  of  this  was  an  increase 
during  recent  years  in  the  importation  of  Russian 
merchandise,  onto  the  markets  of  the  Kingdom. 
This  importation  included  not  only  raw  material 
such  as  iron  ore,  pig-iron  and  cotton,  but  more 
especially  the  manufactured  textile  products.  The 
Oriental  markets  that  served  as  bases  for  these  false 
and  erroneous  political  notions,  showed,  as  Russian 
industry  favored  by  the  government  developed,  an 
unexpected  instability.  The  isituation  of  Polish  in- 
dustry on  the  markets  of  the  Orient,  not  only  became 
from  year  to  year  more  difficult  and  disadvanta- 
geous, but  further,  Russian  industry  began  to  win 
over  the  western  markets,  that  is,  Polish  markets, 
to  the  evident  detriment  of  the  industrial  interests 
of  the  Kingdom. 

*         *         * 

The  general  development  of  industrial  produc- 
tion in  the  Polish  provinces  forming  Prussian  Po- 
l(tand,  (the  Grand  Duchy  of  Posnania,  Western  or 
Royal  Prussia,  Eastern  or  Ducal  Prussia,  and  Upper 
Silesia  or  Silesia  of  Opole),  taken  as  a  territorial 
and  economic  whole,    has    been,  up  to  the  present 


17 


time,  comparatively  small.  This  vast  territory,  hav- 
ing an  area  of  about  10.000  square  kilometers  with 
a  population  of  8}^  millions,  is  pre-eminently  an 
agricultural  country,  with  the  exception  of  the 
south-eastern  part  situated  between  the  Odra  and 
its  tributary,  the  Malapane,  that  forms  the  rich  and 
very  extensive  coal  fields  of  Upper  Silesia. 

The  absence  of  well  developed  industry  in  the 
Prussian  part  of  the  Polish  lands  (except  in  Upper 
Silesia)  is  explained  by  several  important  causes 
and  factors.  First,  all  of  this  western  and  north- 
western part  of  Poland  is  lacking  in  minerals.  In  the 
Grand  Duchy  of  Posen,  in  Western  Prussia  and  in 
Eastern  Prussia,  there  are  no  coal  fields  or  metal 
ores  of  any  value.  It  is  well-known  that  such  de- 
posits form  one  of  the  principal  factors  of  industrial 
development.  The  great  extent  of  this  fertile  land 
and  the  agricultural  and  protectionist  policies  of 
Germany  which  are  favorable  to  agriculture,  have 
directed  •  the  efforts  of  almost  all  the  population  of 
these  provinces  to  the  tillage  and  cultivation  of  the 
soil.  Other  secondary  causes  were:  the  German 
transportation  policy  that  was  largely  governed  by 
strategical  motives  and  concerned  with  the  Interests 
of  German  industrial  production ;  insufficient  canal- 
ization of  the  Vistula  and  Niemen  rivers  inside  the 
Russian  boundaries  that  was  unfavorable  to  the  speed 
and  cost  of  transportation  and  importation  of  raw 
materials  from  the  Kingdom  of  Poland  and  Lithua- 
nia to  factories  and  industrial  establishments  situat- 
ed in  Prussian  Poland ;  and  lastly  the  constant 
emigration  of  competent  workingmen  to  the  western 
provinces  of  Germany,  where,  for  different  reasons, 
conditions  were  more  favorable    for    the    working 


18 


clasis.  The  result  of  all  this  was  a  very  small  indus- 
trial development  in  the  Grand  Duchy  of  Posen  and 
in  Western  and  Eastern  Prussia. 

But  on  the  contrary,  the  fourth  province  of 
Prussian  Poland  —  Upper  Silesia  —  possessing  im- 
mense mineral  wealth  in  coal,  zinc-ore,  iron  and 
lead,  has  become,  in  the  last  forty  or  fifty  years, 
a  powerful  center  of  production,  one  of  the  largest 
in  Poland  and  one  of  the  most  important  m  Europe. 
In  the  southern  and  isouth-eastern  parts  of  Upper 
Silesia  (in  the  centers  of  Katowice,  of  Bytom,  of 
Zabrze,  of  Huta-Krolewska,  of  Tarnowskie  Gory, 
of  Gliwice,  of  Pszczyn,  of  Rybnik  and  of  Opole) 
other  industries  besides  the  mining  of  coal  and  mine- 
rals have  developed,  such  as  metallurgical  coke, 
steel,  chemical,  cement  and  mechanical  industries. 
Thus,  of  all  the  provinces  of  Prussian  Poland  Upper 
Silesia  alone,  has  developed  into  a  great  center  of 
industry  and  is  the  most  industrial  region  itn  all  Po- 
liand. 

Industrial  production  is  new  in  the  other  pro- 
vinces of  Prussian  Poland,  especially  in  the  Grand 
Duchy  of  Posen  and  in  Western  and  Eastern  Prus- 
sia and  has  no  rich  or  instructive  past.  But  the  min- 
ing and  metallurgical  industries  of  Upper  Silesia 
with  its  immense  coal  basin  are  already  old  and  have 
a  history  full  of  interest.  It  is  sufficient  to  call  to 
mind  that  it  was  here,  in  Upper  Silesia,  in  the  lead 
mine  Frederick,  that  the  first  steam  engine  ever 
built  on  German  territory  was  erected  in  1788; 
it  was  here  also  in  1795,  in  the  metallurgical  factory 
of  Gliwice,  that  the  first  blast  furnace  was  built. 

Quite  as  interesting  as  the  history  of  the  techni- 
cal development  of  this  industry  in  Upper  Silesia  is 


1^ 


its  politico-economic  history,  comprising  all  the 
transient  periods  that  led  from  a  production,  inisign- 
ificant  and  purely  local,  to  the  present  powerful 
one,  of  European  importance ;  comprising  all  the 
tragic  episodes  for  Polonism,  and  above  all,  the  con- 
fiscation of  Polish  domains  in  the  reign  of  Frederick 
The  Great,  that  were  then  delivered  up,  soil  and  sub- 
soil, to  foreigners,  enemies  of  Poland. 

In  general,  as  far  as  the  ownership  of  industry 
was  concerned,  the  situation  in  Prussian  Poland 
developed  unfavorably  for  the  Poles.  Industrial 
production  was  neglected  by  the  Polish  nation, 
chiefly  because  of  the  peculiar  social  economic  or- 
ganization of  the  population  in  this  region  of  the 
ancient  Republic.  Be/sides,  working  conditions  were 
exceptionally  difficult,  brought  about  not  only  by 
the  natural  difficulties  but  also  by  the  hostile  atti- 
tude of  the  Prussian  government  in  regard  to  Polish 
industry.  These  obstacles,  until  quite  recently,  have 
hindered  the  development  of  Polish  industrial  labor 
organizations,  they  have  weakened  the  development 
of  concentration  and  hindered  the  creation  of  new 
industrial  establishments,  directed  and  worked  by 
Poles. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Prussian  government 
hais  spared  neither  energy  nor  money  to  accelerate, 
facilitate,  and  support  the  foundation  and  develop- 
ment of  German  industrial  enterprises.  In  doing 
this,  the  government  and  its  representatives  have 
been  guided  exclusively  by  anti-Polish  political 
motives.  In  its  determination  to  Germanize  Prussian 
Poland,  the  Prussian  government  has  attached  great 
importance  to  this  economic  struggle  against  the 
Polish  population.    Thus,  they  tried  systematically 


20 


to  create  a  well-to-do  German  middle  class  in  the 
cities  of  Prussian  Poland  by  protecting  German 
tradesmen  and  by  favoring  the  development  of  small 
German  industries.  But  in  this  economic  struggle, 
the  artificially  protected  German  middle  class  could 
not  hold  out  against  the  energetic  competition  of 
the  young  Polish  bourgeois,  tradesmen,  merchants 
and  small  manufacturers  and  were  obliged,  little  by 
little,  to  yield  their  places  to  the  Poles.  Thus,  those 
in  Prussian  governmental  circles  were  led  to  the 
conviction  that  in  the  field  of  small  production  the 
German  immigrants,  who  had  been  encouraged  to 
settle  in  the  towns  and  villiages  of  Prussian  Poland, 
could  never  assert  themselves;  that  only  a  capital- 
istic production  would  do  away  with  Polish  com- 
petition. 

Among  the  partisans  of  this  ^system  for  the 
Germanization  of  Prussian  Poland,  was  Dr.  Gosler 
who  for  many  years  occupied  the  position  of  Super- 
President  of  Western  Prussia.  In  1898,  after  having 
made  a  study  of  the  western  and  central  industrial 
centers  of  Germany,  Gosler  began  to  establish  new 
German  industrial  enterprises  in  Prussian  Poland. 

At  Danzig  in  1890,  with  the  co-operation  of  the 
German  banks  and  the  Super-Presidents  of  the 
Grand  Duchy  of  Posen  and  of  West  Prussia,  Dr. 
Gosler  established  a  special  institution  for  the  pro- 
tection of  German  industrial  enterprises  in  the 
eastern  provinces,  (Centralstelle  zur  Foerderung 
industrieller  Unternehmungen  in  den  oestlichen 
Provinzen).  This  institution  took  part  in  the  creation 
of  several  large  German  industrial  enterprises  in 
Prussian  Poland,  especially  in  East  and  West  Prus- 
sia. But  many  of  these  enterprises    that    had    been 


21 

founded  to  fill  political  rather  than  economic  needs 
lacked  vitality  and  soon  failed.  However,  the  Gosler 
movement,  supported  by  the  great  German  bankers 
and  profiting  by  state  protection,  certainly  strength- 
ened German  industry,  especially  capitalistic  in- 
dustry in  Prussian  Poland. 

The  highly  protectionist  system  applied  by  the 
German  government  to  German  industry  in  Prus- 
sian Poland,  was  clearly  shown  by  the  personal  and 
official  actions  of  the  highest  government  officials 
in  the  different  Polish  provinces.  Besides  this,  the 
hostility  of  the  Prussian  government  towards  Polish 
industry  was  shown  in  a  striking  manner  by  the 
government  boycott  of  Polish  enterprises.  In 
fact  no  Polish  industrial  establishment  and  no  fac- 
tory or  manufactory,  belonging  to  Poles  ever  receiv- 
ed a  State  order,  though  it  is  a  well  kmown  fact  that 
the  Ministers  of  the  Army  and  Navy,  of  Railroads 
and  Government  Mines  are  the  chief  clients  of  Ger- 
man industry.  In  Prussian  Poland,  German  enter- 
prises received  all  government  orders  while  Polish 
enterprises  were,  on  principle,  set  aside. 

Thus,  the  policy  of  absolute  boycott  against 
Polish  industrial  enterprises  that  has  been  rigor- 
ously practiced  for  many  years  by  the  Prussian  go- 
vernment and  the  state  organizatians  of  the  German 
Empire,  has  hindered  the  expansion  of  industry  in 
Prussian  Poland.  Especially  .so,  since  only  a  rational 
protective  attitude  taken  by  the  State,  as  a  con- 
sumer, could  have  contributed  to  the  development  of 
Polish  industry,  because  of  the  small  capacity  of  the 
local  markets  and  the  total  impossibility  of  with- 
standing the  competition  of  the  (powerful  west  aind 
central  markets  of  the  great  German  industries.  It 


22 


must  be  added  that  this  absolute  boycott  of  Polish 
industrial  enterprises,  practised  by  all  the  central 
and  local  organizations  of  the  German  and  Prussian 
governments,  was  continued  by  the  autonomous 
authoritie's  and  public  institutions  such  as  the  Provi- 
sional government,  County  Supervisors,  Councils 
and  City  Administrations.  The  latter,  by  a  selective, 
electoral  form  of  government,  are  mostly  in  German 
hainds  although  in  many  of  the  towns  of  Prussian 
Poland  the  majority  of  the  population  is  Polish. 

German  banks  in  the  cities  of  the  Grand  Duch) 
of  Posen,  of  Western  and  Eastern  Prussia  and 
Upper  Silesia  have  also  been  of  great  service  to 
German  industry.  These  banks  have  always  consi- 
dered their  principal  task  to  be  the  protection  of 
German  commerce  and  industry  in  Prussian  Poland 
and  as  they  were  cloisely  connected  with  the  great- 
est banking  industries  of  Germany,  the  advantages 
thus  gained  were  considerable.  The  Polish  in- 
dustrial enterprises  in  the  meanwhile  were  obliged 
to  rely  almost  entirely  on  the  Polish  credit  organi- 
zations, fortunately  well  developed,  though  of 
course  much  less  powerful  than  the  German  organi- 
zations supported  by  the  great  Berlin  banks. 

It  was  then,  the  anti-Polish  policy  of  the  Prus- 
sian government  that  retarded  the  development  of 
industry  in  Prussian  Poland  by  the  boycott  of  Polish 
enterprises  and  also  by  dispossessing  Polish  land- 
owners and  establishing  German  colonies  on  the 
land  taken  forcibly,  for  themselves,  from  the  Poles. 
All  this  Prussian  policy  hindered  the  expansion  of 
the  productive  forces  of  the  country  and  weighed 
down  the  production  with  too  heavy  burdens.  The 
productive  forces  of  the  country,     mainly    agricul- 


23 


tural,  suffered  from  the  high  prices  of  land  caused 
for  one  thing  by  the  colonization  policy  of  the  Prus- 
sian government,  that  lowered  the  rates  of  income 
and  thus  brought  about  a  decrease  in  the  capacity  of 
the  home  markets  in  Prussian  Poland.  This  situation 
was  beneficial  to  a  small  number  of  German  manu- 
facturers and  Prussian  bankers.  By  threatening  to 
sell  their  property,  involved  in  debt,  to  the  Poles, 
they  always  succeeded  having  it  bought,  very 
advantag-eously  for  themselves,  by  the  Prussian  co- 
lonization committee. 


In  Austrian  Poland,  in  Galicia  and  In  Silesia  of 
Cieszyn,  conditions  have  also  been  very  unfavorable 
to  economic  life  and  industrial  production. 

Aside  from  Silesia  of  Cieszyn  (that  includes  a 
part  of  the  coal  district  of  Karwina-Ostrawa  where, 
near  the  town  of  Bielsk,  the  coal  and  textile  indus- 
tries developed)  in  the  rest  of  Austrian  Poland,  that 
is  to  say,  in  Galicia,  which  makes  up  the  greater  part 
of  it,  industrial  production  has  developed  very  little. 
Yet  Galicia  has  immense  natural  wealth,  —  magni- 
ficent coal  beds  in  the  district  of  Cracow ;  petroleum 
fields,  perhaps  the  largest  aind  richest  in  Europe ; 
the  celebrated  salt  mines ;  besides  beds  of  all  kinds 
of  clay,  which  are  the  raw  products  used  in  the 
manufacture  of  pottery.  Still,  in  spite  of  all  this 
wealth,  until  recent  years,  Galicia  has  been  from  the 
industrial  point  of  view  the  moist  backward  region 
of  Poland  and  the  part  having  the  least  industrial 
development. 


24 


This  unfavorable  situation  in  Galicia  has  been 
caused  chiefly  by  the  retrograde  industrial  and  eco- 
nomic policy  of  Austria.  "The  concepts  of  industry 
and  those  of  Austria",  isaid  Mr.  M.  P.  Morawitz, 
Director  General  of  the  Anglo  -  Austrian  Bank 
of  Vienna,  in  March,  1908,  at  a  meeting  of 
Austrian  economists,  "are  not  the  same.  Industry  is 
the  expression  for  the  highest  progress  while  Au- 
stria in  many  respects,  still  lives  on  in  the  epoch  be- 
fore 1848.  This  is  why  the  juxtaposition  of  these  two 
terms  is  in  a  way  a  contradiction.  It  is  as  if  one 
spoke  of  the  sunny  skies  of  London".  This  true 
characteristic  has  been  confirmed  in  the  backward 
industrial  and  harmful  custom  policies  of  Austria; 
a  policy  that  has  delivered  Galicia  up  to  the  power- 
ful Austrian  industrial  trusts  and  to  the  Austrian 
government  that  have  treated  this  part  of  Poland  as 
a  colony  to  be  exploited  to  the  utmost. 

The  import  duties  on  industrial  products  are 
such  that  the  trusts  of  western  Austria,  that  is  to 
.  say,  the  manufacturers  of  Vienna,  Bohemia,  Mora- 
via and  of  Styria  can  force  high  prices  in  the  Gali- 
cian  markets  on  the  most  necessary  industrial  artic- 
les. Supported  by  the  central  authorities  at  Vienna, 
their  influence  is  such  that  no  industrial  establish- 
ment can  be  founded  in  Galicia  without  the  consent 
of  the  trusts  of  that  branch  of  industry.  Needless  to 
say,  the  trusts  have  obstinately  opposed  the  estab- 
lishment of  new  centers  of  production  in  Galicia. 
Long  yeai^s  of  experience  and  observation  of  the 
policies  of  the  trusts  have  proven  that  Galicia  has 
been  treated  as  a  market  and  not  as  a  center  of  pro- 
duction. 

The  government  is  entirely  indifferent  to  this 


policy  of  the  trusts  that  is  so  harmful  to  the  in- 
terests of  Galicia.  But  what  is  worse,  they  often  in- 
directly uphold  the  hostile  actions  of  the  trusts  of 
W«stern  and  Central  Austria,  and  it  is  only  in  ex- 
ceptional cases  that  the  government  will  give  way 
to  the  Polish  representatives  in  the  Viemma  Parlia- 
ment. The  Austrian  policy  has  acted  as  a  check  to 
the  industrial  development  of  Galicia  through  taxes 
levied  on  industry.  The  comparison  that  has  been 
made  so  many  times  between  the  rates  of  the  pro- 
fessional taxes  of  Austria  and  those  of  other  states 
shows  a  difference  prejudicial  to  Galician  industry. 
This  state  of  things  was  made  worse  by  a  system  of 
supplementary  taxes  in  autonomous  lands ;  provin- 
cial, district  and  township  taxes.  In  Galicia  these 
supplementary  taxes  that  were  most  harmful  to  the 
expansion  of  industry  greatly  exceeded  the  taxes  in 
other  parts  of  Austria.  This  was  the  consequence  of 
certain  peculiarities  of  the  Austrian  fiscal  legislation 
and  also  because  of  the  precarious  situation  of  the 
Galician  finances. 

Austria's  indifference  to  the  industrial  and  eco- 
nomic interests  of  Galicia  is  shown  also  In  a  striking 
manner  by  her  transportation  policy.  This  policy 
was  distinguished  from  the  first  by  the  two  follow- 
ing characteristics :  first,  the  Austrian  government 
estimated  each  new  line  of  railroad  in  Galicia  from 
a  strategical  point  of  view  and  then,  methodically 
neglected  the  economic  needs  of  the  country  and,  as 
has  already  been  said,  this  neglect  was  the  result  of 
the  fact  that  Galicia  was  considered  merely  as  a  near 
by  and  convenient  market  for  the  industry  of  the 
western  provinces  of  Austria.  The  system  of  Gali- 
cian railroads,  like  those  in  Russian  and  Prussian 


26 


Poland,  were  not  only  insufficient  but  irrational  and 
responded  in  no  way  to  the  economic  interests  of  the 
country. 

The  government  has  been  just  as  inactive  in 
the  conistruction  of  highways.  It  was  only  through 
the  energetic  efforts  of  the  autonomous  govern- 
mental bodies  that,  during  the  last  fifteen  years, 
roads  have  finally  been  constructed,  and  again  the 
Vierwia  government  brought  pressure  to  bear  to 
have  strategical  highways  built.  The  State  policy  in 
regard  to  the  interior  waterways  of  Galicia,  showed 
the  same  neglect,  the  canal  question  became  almost 
a  scandal.  Work  was  held  up  for  nearly  eight  years 
on  the  canal  from  the  Vistula  to  the  Odra.  This 
work  that  had  been  prescribed  by  law,  voted  and 
sanctioned  by  the  Parliament,  was  hindered  by  the 
malicious  policies  of  the  government.  It  was  only  in 
3911,  under  pressure  of  the  Polish  representatives 
in  Parliament,  that  the  government  decided  to  un- 
dertake this  work  and  that  finally  construction  was 
begun. 

In  a  word,  in  Austrian  Poland  as  well  as  in  the 
other  parts  of  Poland,  although  perhaps  in  another 
form,  economic  life,  especially  the  development  of 
industrial  production,  was  hindered  by  the  peculiar 
and  unfriendly  policies  of  the  government,  that  were 
manifest  in  all  branches  of  economic  activity.  So, 
the  economic  policy  of  Austria,  together  with  her 
organic  and  social  defects,  was  the  cause  of 
the  lack  of  industrial  development  in  Galicia  and 
thus,  in  spite  of  her  enormouis  wealth  and  great 
reserve  of  man-power,  Galicia  became  the  country 
that,  unable  to  export  her  industrial  products,  was 
compelled  to  export  human  beings.  Galicia  of  all  the 


27 


Polish  provinces  had  the  gireatest  emigration  —  to 
her  inational  and  material  detriment. 


In  the  foregoing  pages  we  have  retraced  the 
principal  factors  that  have  combined  in  the  three 
parts  of  Poland  to  hinder  the  development  and 
growth  of  economic  and  industrial  life.  Neither  in- 
dustry nor  commerce  and  to  a  certain  degree,  not 
even  the  agricultural  production,  has  had  the  real 
protection  of  the  state.  In  the  western  countries  of 
Europe,  experience  has  shown  the  great  importance 
of  the  protection  of  the  state  as  a  factor  in  develop- 
ment, when  rationally  and  sincerely  applied.  With- 
out this  friendly  protection,  industry,  commerce  and 
rural  economy  have  been  unable  to  make  full  use, 
for  production  and  exchange,  of  all  the  natural 
wealth  that  abounds  in  the  Polish  countries ;  have 
been  uiniable  to  benefit  fully  by  the  favorable 
geographical  situation,  and  have  been  unable  to  use 
the  immense  reserve  of  man-power  of  which  Poland 
disposes.  The  attitude  of  the  sharing  governments 
in  regard  to  the  economic  needs  of  the  different 
parts  of  Poland  has  been  the  typical  attitude  taken 
by  foreigm  conquerors  towards  the  country  con- 
quered. 


II. 

DESCRIPTION  OF  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF 

THE  INDUSTRIAL  PRODUCTIVE  FORCE 

OF  THE  POLISH  COUNTRIES. 

Industrial  life  in  the  Polish  countries  has  deve- 
loped under  generally  unfavorable  conditions.  There 
has  never  been  a  loyal  state  protection  of  industrial 
production,  on  the  contrary,  the  economic  policies  of 
the  sharing  States  adapted  to  their  own  fiscal  needs, 
taking  into  account  first  of  all  the  industrial  inte- 
rests of  Rusisia,  Germany  or  Austria,  often  hindered 
the  industrial  development  of  Poland.  Yet  in  spite 
of  all  these  unfavorable  conditions,  industrial  pro- 
duction in  Poland  —  because  of  the  great  natural 
wealth  of  the  country,  its  geographical  situation, 
and  great  reserve  of  manual  labor  —  developed  con- 
siderably. 

From  the  point  of  view  of  industrial  develop- 
ment, Poland,  taken  as  a  territorial  and  economic 
whole,  certainly  occupies  an  important  place  among 
the  European  states. 

In  fact,  in  the  Kingdom  of  Poland,  in  Prussian 
Poland  (Upper  Silesia,  the  Grand  Duchy  of  Posen 
and  Western  Prussia)  and  in  Galicia  there  were 
according  to  the  statistics  of  1907-1910,  from  twenty- 
two  to  twenty-five  thousand  industrial  establish- 
ments (not  including  the  small  artisan  shops)  em- 
ploying more  than  nine  hundred  thousand  men,  and 
liaving  an  annual  production  of  5  billion  francs. 


'2'.} 

Table  I.  gives  the  detailed  distribution  of  work- 
ingmen  according  to  different  branches  of  industry 
in  different  parts  of  Poland. 

Table  I.  —  Number  of  workingmen  employ-ed. 

Kingdom        Prussian 
Industry  of  Poland  Poland        Galicia  Totals 

Textile    150,000  8,000  5,000  163,000 

Food    industry    43,000  60.000  21,000  124,000 

Metals 62,000  60,000  11,000  133,000 

Mines    &    metallurgy  46.000  150.000  18,000  214,000 

Garments 25,000  20,000  1,000  46,000 

Mineral    23,000  40,000  20,000  83,000 

Chemical 9,000  9,000  5,000  23,000 

Animal  products    ...  7,000  3,000  1,000  11,000 

Paper   &   printing...  15,000  10,000  6,000  31,000 

Wood 17,000  40,000  12,000  69,000 

Various    3,000  3,000 

Totals:     400,000  400,000  100,000  900,000 

There  were  in  round  numbers,  nine  hundred 
thousand  workingmen  engaged  in  industrial  enter- 
prises in  all  parts  of  Poland,  four-ninths  in  the 
Kingdom  of  Poland,  four-ninths  in  Prussian  Poland 
and  only  one-ninth  in  Galicia  together  with  the 
Grand  Duchy  of  Cracow.  To  this  important  figure 
must  be  added  the  one  hundred  thousand  laborers 
working  in  the  mining  and  industrial  establishments 
of  Silesia  of  Cieszyn,  and  in  the  manufactories  of 
the  district  of  Bielsk.  This  gives  a  positive  figure  of 
at  least  one  million  industrial  workingmen  employed 
in  the  Polish  countries  just  before  the  outbreak  of 
the  war.  This  is  a  minimum  figure  because  the  five 
years  preceding  the  war  were  a  period  of  great  in- 
dustrial activity  in  the  Kingdom  of  Poland  and  in 
Upper  Silesia.  During  this  period  a  large  number  of 
important  industrial  establishments  were  founded 
in  the  Kingdom  of  Poland,    which    increased    the 


30 


number  of  factory  laborers.  During  this  same  period 
also  the  mining  and  metallurgical  industries  of 
Upper  Silesia  developed  rapidly. 

Table  II.  brings  out  bettter  the  intensity  of  in- 
dustrial production.  This  table  shows  in  francs  the 
value  of  the  production  of  different  branches  of  in- 
dustry in  the  three  parts  of  Poland. 

The  total  value  of  industrial  production  in  the 
Polish  countries,  included  in  this  table  according  to 
calculations  for  1910,  are  about  4,900,000,000  francs. 
Considering  that  the  value  of  production  in  Silesia 
of  Cieszyn  and  in  the  district  of  Bialystok  was  at 
least  300,000,000  francs,  it  can  be  approximately 
estimated  that  the  total  value  of  the  industrial  pro- 
duction in  the  Polish  countries  was  b%  billion 
francs,  since  during  the  last  five  years  preceding  the 
war,  industrial  production  in  Upper  Silesia  and  in 
the  Kingdom  of  Pola)nd  had  a  very  vigorous  and 
rapid  growth. 

The  statistical  data  in  these  two  tables,  giving 
the  number  of  workingmen  occupied  in  industrial 
establishments  and  the  value  of  the  production  of 
different  branches  of  industry,  show  likewise  the 
interior  structure  of  Polish  industry. 

Thus  Polish  industry  is  characterized  in  general 
by  two  principal  features:  first,  by  a  great  develop- 
ment in  mining  and  metallurgical  production, 
amounting  to  a  billion  francs  a  year,  (including  the 
production  of  Silesia  of  Cieszyn)  then,  an  important 
development  in  manufacturing  industries,  such  as 
the  textile,  garment  and  metal  industries.  During 
the  years  1907-10,  the  total  value  of  the  production 
of  the  different  branches  of  these  manufacturing 
industries  amounted  to  1  billion  800  million  francs 


31 


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32 


a  year,  surely  an  important  figure,  if  one  considers 
the  unfavorable  and  difficult  conditionis  under  which 
industry  was  carried  on  in  the  Polish  countries. 

The  great  development  of  the  Polish  mining 
and  metallurgical  industries  that  occupy  one  of  the 
first  places  on  the  balance  sheet  of  industrial  pro- 
duction in  the  Polish  countries  was  based  on  the 
great  mineral  wealth,  particularly  the  rich  coal  fields 
of  the  mining  district  of  Silesia,  and  also  on  the 
abundance  of  other  mineral  products  such  as:  oil, 
salt,  zinc-ore  and  in  lesser  quantity,  iron-ore.  The 
mineral  wealth  of  the  country  is  also  one  of  the 
decisive  factors  in  the  development  of  the  manufac- 
turing branches  of  Polish  industry.  Without  the  coal 
and  metallurgical  industries,  neither  the  develop- 
ment of  textile  or  the  growth  of  metal  production 
wliich  reached  such  a  high  level  of  technical  perfec- 
tion in  the  Kingdom  of  Poland  and  in  Prussian  Po- 
land (Upper  Silesia)  could  have  been  possible.  The 
low  cost  and  abundance  of  labor  that  played  isuch 
a  very  important  role  in  the  economic  development 
of  Poland,  especially  in  industry,  developed  the 
garment  industry.  This  included  not  only  the  raw 
material  and  half-product  textiles  but  animal  matter, 
as  well.  Thus  it  was*  that  before  the  war  there  were 
not  only  boot  and  shoe  but  leather  goods  factories 
as  well,  both  of  them  very  important. 

Food  products  was  another  important  branch 
of  Polish  industrial  production.  One  hundred  and 
twenty-four  thousand  workingmen  were  empfoyed 
with  an  annual  output  of  1  billion  200  million  francs 
in  these  industries  that  are  so  closely  connected 
with  the  agricultural  production  and  which  have 
acquired  great  value. 


33 


The  great  importance  of  this  branch  of  industry 
resulted  in  the  development  of  sugar  refineries.  Be- 
fore the  war  there  were  about  one  hundred  and  ten 
sugar  factories  in  the  Polish  countries  with  an  an- 
nual output  of  nearly  1  million  tons  of  raw  sugar. 
Thus  Poland  occupied  one  of  the  first  places  in  the 
sugar  production  of  Europe,  being  surpassed  only 
by  Germany,  Russia  and  Austria.  In  a  word,  up  to 
the  present  time,  the  Polish  countries  have  been  one 
of  the  principal  centers  of  sugar  production  in 
Europe.  They  surely  would  have  been  able  to  hold 
that  place  and  might,  even,  have  reached  the  first 
rank. 

The  distillation  of  alcohol  from  potatoes  was 
another  well  developed  branch  of  the  food  products 
industry.  There  were  many  large  refineries  in  the 
country,  generally  agricultural,  and  the  annual  pro- 
duction of  alcohol  reached  two  million  hectoliters, 
about  half  of  which  came  from  Prussian  Poland, 
two-sixths  from  Austria,  and  one^ixth  from  the 
Kingdom  of  Poland. 

The  sugar  and  alcohol  industries  have  grown 
to  such  an  extent  that  they  now  occupy  the  most 
important  place  in  Polish  production.  The  agricul- 
tural character  of  a  great  part  of  Poland,  especially 
Prussian  Poland  (not  including  Upper  Silesia)  and 
Galicia  has  been  the  cause  of  the  great  growth  of 
these  two  branches  of  the  food  industry. 

The  other  branches  of  industrial  production  in 
the  Polish  countries  of  which  more  than  one  became 
important,  as  can  be  seen  from  the  above  figures, 
were  founded  on  the  natural  wealth  of  the  country, 
which  was  easily  exploited  because  of  cheap  and 
plentiful  labor;  as  example,  we  may  cite  the  well 


34 


developed  wood  industry  in  Prussian  Poland  —  in 
West  and  East  Prussia  especially.  This  industry  is 
even  more  developed  in  the  Kingdom  of  Poland. 

The  wood  industry  enterprises  in  West  and 
East  Prussia  worked  mostly  with  the  raw  material 
from  local  forests  and  wood  imported,  by  the 
Vistula,  the  Niemen  and  their  tributaries,  from  the 
forests  of  the  Kingdom  of  Poland,  from  Lithuania, 
Galicia  and  also  from  Russia.  Principally  half- 
products  were  manufactured  there,  such  as  lumber, 
beams,  rafters,  boards  and  mining  timbers.  The 
manufacture  of  finished  wood  products,  especially 
furniture,  was  little  developed. 

But  in  the  Kingdom  of  Poland,  the  wood  in- 
dustry though  not  so  extensive  as  in  Prussian  Po- 
land, was  greatly  superior  in  workmanship ;  chiefly 
the  manufacture  of  furniture.  At  Warsaw,  at  Nowo- 
Radomsk,  at  Lodz,  at  Czenstochowa  and  at  Radom, 
there  were  large  furniture  factories,  some  of  them 
being  powerful  capitalistic  enterprises. 

In  Galicia,  notwithstanding  the  great  wealth  of 
forests,  the  wood  industry,  much  less  developed, 
was  limited  to  the  manufacture  of  cut-wood,  lumber 
and  half-products  to  be  exported  into  the  western 
provinces  of  Germany  and  Austria. 

The  mineral  industry  was  also  extended  in  the 
Polish  contries  because  of  the  natural  wealth. 

Numerous  pottery  factories  of  all  sorts:  of 
cement,  glass,  terra-cotta,  crockery,  lime-kilns,  etc., 
employed  nearly  83,000  workingmen  during  the 
years  1907-10.  The  annual  output  amounted  to  near- 
ly 270  million  francs.  Among  the  different  branches 
of  Polish  mineral  industry,  the  most  important  was 


the  cement  industry    that    had    become  one  of  the 
great  capitalistic  industries. 

Before  the  war  there  were  twenty-five  cement 
factories  in  operation  in  the  Kingdom  of  Poland, 
Prussian  Poland,  Galicia  and  in  Silesia  of  Cieszyn, 
having  an  annual  output  of  nearly  120,000  tons  of 
Portland  cement  and  with  a  capital  stock  amounting 
to  nearly  60  million  francs.  The  principal  centers  of 
this  industry  were  in  the  neighborhood  of  Opole 
in  Upper  Silesia,  around  Czenstochowa  and  Za- 
wiercie,  in  the  Kingdom  of  Poland.  The  trusts  of 
western  Austria  systematically  opposed  the  founda- 
tioln  of  new  factories  in  Galicia  and  so  before  the 
war,  notwithstanding  the  great  amount  of  raw  ma- 
terial to  be  had  in  Galicia,  there  were  only  two  ce- 
ment factories,  both  of  them  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Cracow. 

Among  other  branches  of  mineral  industry  that 
developed  was  the  lime  industry  in  and  around  Opo- 
le, Czenstochowa,  Kielce,  and  Opoczno ;  the  pottery 
industry  occupied  a  notable  place  in  the  Kingdom 
of  Poland  where  there  were  many  large  earthen- 
ware, majolica  and  terra-cotta  factories  working 
almost  exclusively  for  export. 

Chemical  industries,  mostly  adapted  to  the 
agricultural  needs  of  the  country,  were  also  import- 
ant, manufacturing  chiefly  artificial  fertilizers.  The 
annual  production  of  this  industry  amounted  to  two 
hundred  million  francs.  However,  this  industry  could 
have  reached  a  far  greater  degree  of  development  if 
all  the  resources  of  the  region  could  have  been 
utilized;  the  coal  beds  in  the  mining  district  of 
Upper   Silesia   and   Karwina-Orawa,   and   the   salt 


36 


beds,  especially  the  potasium  salts  that  are  found  in 
such  great  abundance  in  Galicia. 

Great  chemical  industries  were  connected,  as 
auxiliary  enterprises,  with  the  coke  and  metallurgical 
factories  of  Upper  Silesia.  The  production  of  these 
factories  is  included  in  the  above  table.  Besides 
these,  there  were  also  thriving  chemical  industries 
in  the  Kingdom  of  Poland  (in  the  neighborhood  of 
Czenstochowa,  Warsaw  and  of  Lowicz,  and  in  the 
mining  districts  of  Dombrowa,  and  also  in  the  Grand 
Duchy  of  Posen,  (near  Inowroclaw,  Posen  and  Byd- 
goszcz). 

In  general,  Polish  industry  was  concentrated  in 
several  large  industrial  districts.  The  greatest  of 
these  was  the  Silesian-Polish  district  that  included 
all  of  the  Silesian-Polish  coal  basin,  that  is ;  parts  of 
Upper  Silesia,  Cieszyn,  Dombrowa  and  Cracow. 
Almost  the  entire  mining  and  metallurgical  produc- 
tion of  the  Polish  countries  developed  in  this  dist- 
rict, as  well  as  the  mineral  production  of  cement 
and  lime.  The  textile  production  also  developed 
here  in  the  district  of  Dombrowa,  at  Sosnowiec,  at 
Zawiercie,  and  at  Siedlec  and,  before  the  war  the 
metal  industry  was  also  important  in  this  district. 

The  best  proof  of  the  wealth  and  great  product- 
ive force  of  this  industrial  district  is  the  400,000 
workingmen  employed  in  the  mining  and  metallur- 
gical factories  and  in  the  manufactories.  The  value 
of  the  production  may  be  approximately  estimated 
at  2  billion  frames  a  year. 

The  district  of  Lodz  was  the  second  in  im- 
portance for  industrial  production  and  was  the  cen- 
ter of  the  great  textile  manufactories. 

The  district  of  Lodz,  before  the  war,  included 


37 


the  town  of  Lodz  and  the  neighboring  towns  and 
villages  of  Pabianice,  Zgierz,  Ozorkow,  Tomaszow- 
Rawski,  Belchatow,  Zdunska-Wola,  Opatowek,  Ale- 
ksandrow  and  even  Kalisz.  In  this  district  there 
were  industrial  establishments  for  spinning,  weav- 
ing and  dyeing  all  kinds  of  textile  products,  prin- 
cipally cotton  and  wool,  and  to  a  lesser  degree, 
linen,  hemp  and  jute.  Two  hundred  thousand  work- 
ingmen  were  employed  in  these  establishments  and 
the  annual  production  amounted  to  one  billion 
francs. 

Third  in  importance  was  the  district  of  Warsaw, 
which  included,  besides  Warsaw,  the  capital  of  Po- 
land, a  series  of  industrial  centers,  attached  to  it 
(Zyrardow  and  Marki,  industrial  villages  near  by 
Warsaw,  and  also  the  sugar  refineries  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Kutno  and  Wloclawek).  This  district  is 
of  great  importance  to  the  economic  life  of  Poland. 
There  were  sugar  refineries  and  metal  manufac- 
tories, garment  and  tannery  industries  concentrated 
at  Warsaw.  In  this  district  also  the  textile  industry 
was  flourishing  at  Warsaw  where  there  were  at  least 
a  dozen  textile  factories.  There  was  a  great  factory 
at  Zyrardow  for  linen,  cotton  and  wool  products. 
This  factory,  by  the  way,  was  founded  ninety  years 
ago  by  the  Polish  Bank  with  the  co-operation  of  the 
celebrated  Philippe  de  Girard  and,  before  the  war, 
was  the  largest  hosiery  factory  on  the  continent. 
There  were  also  textile  works  at  Marki. 

Before  the  war  the  industrial  district  of  War- 
saw without  counting  the  well  developed  dwelling- 
house  indtistries  employed  about  200,000  working- 
men  with  an  annual  production  of  a  billion  francs. 

The  district  of  the  Baltic  is  the  last  one  of  the 


38 


important  industrial  centers  of  the  Polish  countries 
and  includes  the  towns  of  Gdansk  (Danzig),  Kro- 
lewiec  (Koenigsberg),  Elbling  and  Pilawa.  This 
district  was  especially  a  metal-manufacturing  cen- 
ter. Before  the  war  there  were  great  workshops  for 
the  construction  of  ships,  locomotives,  railroad  cars 
and  stearn  engines,  employing  50,000  workingmen 
having  an  annual  production  of  500  million  francs. 

Besides  the  principal  industrial  districts,  there 
were  also  secondary  centeirs  such  as :  1.  the  sub- 
Carpathian  district,  the  oil-fields  of  Tustanowice- 
Boryslaw;  2.  the  district  of  Lublin  where  agricul- 
tural products  are  manufactured,  (sugar  refineries, 
flour  mills)  and  where  there  are  auxiliary  agricul- 
tural industries  such  as  the  manufacture  of  farming 
implements ;  3.  the  district  of  Bialystok  with  im- 
portant textile  and  metallurgical  manufactories, 
and  finally  4.  the  district  of  Great  Poland,  (the 
Grand  Duchy  of  Posen  and  West  Prussia)  of  great 
extemt  and  having  chiefly  agricultural  industries: 
sugar  refineries,  alcohol  distilleries,  flour  mills  and 
tobacco  factories. 

Together  these  secondary  districts  employed 
more  than  one  hundred  thousand  workingmen  and 
had  an  annual  production  of  about  500  million 
francs. 

Such  is  a  brief  description  of  the  development 
of  industry  in  the  Polish  countries ;  a  description 
tracing  the  evolution  of  the  principal  branches  of 
industrial  production  in  the  different  provinces  of 
Poland,  the  distribution  of  the  principal  centers  of 
industry  and  the  internal  structure  of  the  industry. 
This  description  places  in  evidence  the  great  pro- 
ductive capacity  of  Polish  industry,  proves  its  great 


39 


force  of  expansion  and  shows  that  in  spite  of  all 
unfavorable  conditions,  in  spite  of  the  hostile  eco- 
nomic and  industrial  policies  of  the  sharing  States 
that  took  into  no  account  the  economic  needs  of  the 
Polish  countries,  in  spite  of  existing  defects  in  the 
different  domains  of  social  life,  and  above  all,  in 
spite  of  the  non-existence  of  a  national  state  organi- 
zation, that  before  the  outbreak  of  the  war,  there 
was  a  great  and  important  development  in  Polish 
industrial  organisms.  All  this  proves  conclusively 
that  Poland,  politically  independent  and  having  her 
own  state  organization,  could  fill  an  honorable  place 
among  the  economic  organisms  of  Europe. 

Because  the  capacity  of  the  industrial  produc- 
tion in  the  Polish  countries  restsi  on  a  durable 
economic  basis  namely:  the  natural  wealth  of  the 
country,  and  the  great  reserve  of  man-power.  More- 
over these  countries  have  a  powerful  backbone :  the 
Polish  coal  fields  of  Silesia. 


III. 

THE  POLISH-SILESIAN  COAL  FIELDS. 

The  backbone  of  the  entire  industrial  organism 
of  the  Polish  countries  is  the  great  Silesian  coal 
basin. 

These  coal  fields  are  situated  in  the  southern 
and  south-western  part  of  Poland,  almost  entirely 
on  Polish  territory.  B-efore  the  war  this  whole 
territory,  amounting  to  about  6,000  square  kilo- 
meters (3,750  sq.  miles),  was  divided  among  the 
sharing  States.  Of  this  territory,  3,200  square  kilo- 
meters or  50%  belonged  to  t^he  Prussian  part  (so- 
called  district  of  Upper  Silesia) ;  about  2,300 
square  kilometers  or  40%  to  the  Austrian  part  (so- 
called  districts  of  Karwina-Ostrawa  and  Cracow) 
and  500  square  kilometers  only  or  less  than  10% 
to  the  Russian  part  (district  of  Dombrowa)  in  the 
Kingdom  of  Poland.  The  Austrian  part  of  this 
coal  basin  is  made  up  of  two  unequal  districts ;  the 
newer  mining  district  of  Cracow  or  Galicia  takes 
in  1,300  square  kilometers,  while  the  older  district 
of  Karwina-Ostrawa,  situated  in  Austrian  Sile- 
sia, and  the  zone  bordering  upon  Moravia,  takes 
in  1,000  square  kilometers.  It  should  be  noticed 
here,  that  the  southern  and  eastern  boundaries  of 
the  SilesiannPolish  coal  fields  have  not  yet  been 
d<*termined  and  different     indications     show  that 


41 


they  are  of  great  extent.  Their  real  size  and  wealth 
could  only  be  ascertained  by  a  thorough  survey. 

The  Silesian-Polish  coal  field  belongs  to  the 
richest  of  the  world,  according  to  the  calculations 
of  Polish  and  German  geologists.  These  Polish  coal 
beds,  to  the  depth  of  1,000  meters,  contain  ap- 
proximately 100  billion  tons  of  coal  of  which  55 
billions  are  in  Upper  Silesia,  24  billions  in  the 
district  of  Cracow,  16  billions  in  the  district  of 
Karwina-Ostrawa,  and  5  billions  in  the  district 
of  Dombrowa.  So,  if  the  annual  production  of  re- 
cent years  (62  millions  in  1913)  is  taken  as  a  basis, 
this  reserve  can  last  for  fifteen  hundred  years,  and, 
even  in  the  case  of  increased  exploitation,  for  one 
thousand  years  at  least.  It  will  be  recalled  that 
according  to  estimates  made  by  the  geologist,  Wro- 
claw Fr.  Freeh,  the  reserve  of  coal  in  England  is 
suffici-ent  for  250  or  300  years,  in  Germany  (Polish 
basin)  for  700  or  800  years,  in  Belgium  for  800 
years  and  in  the  other  less  important  coal  fields 
of  Europe  for  200  or  300  years  at  most. 

The  Silesian-Polish  coal  fields  compare  favor- 
aibly  with  the  other  European  coal  fields  by  the 
simplicity  of  tiheir  geological  structure,  by  the 
wealth  of  the  exploitable  seams,  and  also  by  the 
exceptional  thickness  of  the  seams,  that  makes  the 
output  so  much  easier  than  in  other  coal  fields  of 
western  Europe  where  the  seams  are  thinner. 
Moreover,  the  Silesian-Polish  coal  fields  contain 
great  quantities  of  soft  coal,  suitable  for  the  pro- 
duction of  metallurgical  coke.  Thus,  the  Silesian- 
Polish  coal  fields  make  a  powerful  foundation  for  the 
development  of  industry,  not  only  of  the  metallur- 
gical but  of  the  chemical  industry  which  could  also 


42 


be  fed  by  the  secondary  products  obtained  from  coal 
distillation. 

There  was  a  very  rapid  development  in  the 
output  of  coal  in  the  Silesian-Polish  basin  until  the 
beginning  of  the  war.  During  the  last  tw^enty-five 
years,  especially  the  fourteen  just  preceding  the 
war,  1900-13  inclusive,  the  output  was  so  great 
that  it  placed  Polish  coal  production  in  one  of  the 
first  places  among  the  coal  producing  countries 
of  Europe.  Table  III  gives  the  Polish  coal  pro- 
duction during  this  period  of  years. 


Table  III.  - 

-  Output  of  the  Polish  coal  fields, 

(metric  tons). 

District 

District 

District 

District 

of 

of 

of 

of 

Year 

Upper- 
Silesia 

Karwina- 
Ostrawa 

Dombrowa 

Cracow 

Totals 

1890 

16,862,876 

4,229,600 

2.584.612 

609.647 

24,286,735 

1895 

18,063,906 

4,717,264 

3,681,663 

753.320 

27,216,143 

1900 

24,815,041 

5,772,601 

4,014,079 

1,166,633 

35.768,354 

1901 

25,251,625 

6,344,395 

4,140,439 

987,854 

36.724,313 

1902 

24,470,788 

5,940,535 

4,232,287 

864,853 

35,508.463 

1903 

25,235,649 

6,097,275 

4.747.812 

815,532 

36.896,268 

1904 

25,426,493 

6,135,682 

4.619.563 

988,438 

37,170,176 

1905 

27,003,420 

6,440,300 

3,507,936 

1.118,201 

38,069.857 

1906 

29,658,528 

6,886,969 

4,550,946 

8,303.686 

49,395,129 

1907 

32,221,971 

7,057,621 

5,318,707 

1,366,896 

45,965,195 

1908 

32,958,356 

7,344,349 

5,520,971 

1,276,259 

47.099,935 

1909 

34,656,638 

7,636,574 

5,584,183 

1,162,434 

49,039,829 

1910 

34,446,094 

7,675,949 

5,468.763 

8,357,513 

55,948,319 

1911 

36,622,969 

8.073,713 

5,769,928 

1,653,724 

52.120,334 

1912 

41,543,442 

8,769,782 

6,315,430 

1,922,210 

58,550,864 

1913 

43.801,056 

9.376.513 

6,833.587 

1,970,705 

61,981,861 

As  this  table  shows,  during  twenty-five  years, 
from  1890  do  1913  inclusive,  the  output  of  coal  in 
the  Silesian  Polish  basin  increased  from  24  mill- 
ion to  nearly  62  million     tons,     an     augmentation 


43 


of  150%.  The  lowest  relative  increase  occurred  in 
the  district  of  Karwina-Ostrawa  where  it  was 
only  126%.  The  greatest  increase  was  in  the 
district  of  Cracow  where  it  reached  217%.  But,  in 
the  actual  output  of  coal,  the  large  district  of  Cra- 
cow, so  rich  in  coal,  came  last  because  of  the 
harmful  Austrian  mining  policy,  that  favored  giv- 
ing the  mining  concessions  to  foreign  con- 
tractors and  speculators,  who  found  it  to  their 
advantage  not  to  begin  working  the  mines  in  their 
possessions.  The  development  in  the  output  of  coal 
in  the  districts  of  Upper  Silesia  and  Dorrtbrowa 
progressed  uniformly,  being  170%  for  the  last 
twenty-five  years. 

Tatole  III  which  gives  the  output  of  coal  in  the 
Silesian-Polish  basin  and  its  distribution  according 
to  the  several  centers  of  the  district,  shows  con- 
clusively the  predominance  of  the  Upper  Silesian 
district  which  alone  produced  two-thirds  of  the 
entire  coal  output  of  the  basin.  Because  that  part 
of  the  Silesian-Polish  coal  basin  which  is  within  the 
Prussian  boundaries  is  not  only  the  richest  and  larg- 
est, but  is  also  the  be^t  developed. 

The  output  of  coal  in  the  entire  Silesian-Polish 
basin  increased  steadly  from  year  to  year,  until  in 
1913  it  reached  nearly  62  million  tons.  Thus  the 
Silesian-Polish  coal  basin  occupied  a  very  import- 
ant place  in  the  world's  production  and  was  also  one 
of  the  greatest  centers  of  coal  production. 

Table  IV  shows  Poland's  place  in  the  coal  out- 
put of  Europe. 

This  table  shows  that,  in  the  output  of  coal  in 
Europe  before  the  war,  the  Polish  countries  were 
surpassed  only  by  England  and  Germany. 


44 


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45 


A  more  significant  fact  is  that,  during  the  per- 
iod from  1900  up  to  the  war,  the  production  of  the 
Silesian-Polish  coal  fields  showed  the  greatest 
acceleration  of  productivity  in  Europe,  excepting 
only  Russia.  In  fact,  the  output  of  coal  in  Poland 
during  this  period  increased  about  70%  ;  in  England 
only  from  16  to  20%  ;  in  Germa^Ky  50  to  60% ;  in 
France  22  to  25%  ;  in  Austria  only  15%  ;  while  in 
Belgium  it  remained  about  stationary.  Only  in  Rus- 
sia was  the  increase  greater,  being  81%.  Besides, 
the  Silesian-Polish  coal  fields  are  still  far  from 
having  ireached  their  culminating  point  and  can,  un- 
der economic  and  political  conditions  favorable  to 
Poland,  accelerate  even  more  the  already  remark- 
able rapidity  of  their  development.  These  coal  fields 
then,  from  the  unmistakable  evidence  of  the  figures 
in  table  IV,  make  a  powerful  foundation  for  the 
whole  organism  of  Polish  industrial  production. 

The  Silesian-Polish  coal  basin  that  contains 
in  the  districts  of  Upper  Silesia  and  Karwina-Ostra- 
wa  much  valuable  soft  coal  is  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant centers  of  coke  production  in  Europe.  Soft 
coal  is  found  in  Upper  Silesia  (district  of  Upper  Sil- 
esia) and  in  Silesia  of  Cieszyn  (district  of  Karwina- 
Ostrawa).  In  Russian  Poland  beds  of  soft  coal,  fit 
for  coke  distillation,  have  not  yet  been  found,  but 
in  Galicia  (district  of  Cracow)  there  are  beds  of 
soft  coal  that  have  not  yet  been  worked.  This  is  one 
of  the  reasons  for  the  small  development  in  the 
output  of  fuel  in  this  large  and  rich  part  of  the 
Polish-Silesian  basin,  and  yet,  although  the  rich 
deposits  of  soft  coal  are  insufficiently  exploited, 
still  coke  production  in  the  Polish  countries,  that 
is  to  say,  in  the  Silesian-Polish  basin,  has  become 


46 


most  important.  During  the  last  twenty-five  years, 
especially  during  the  last  fourteen  years  from  1900- 
1913  inclusive,  the  coke  production  in  the  Silesian- 
Polish  coal  fields  was  as  follows. 


Table  V. 

,  —  Production  of  coke 

(metric  tons). 

District 

District 

Year 

of 

of 

Totals 

Upper  Silesia 

Karwina-Ostrawa 

1890 

987,950 

587,313 

1,575,263 

1895 

1,029,485 

650,873 

1,680,368 

1900 

1,306,557 

1,145,222 

2,451,779 

1901 

1,168,472 

1,208,768 

2,377.240 

1902 

1.095,468 

1.100,320 

2,195,788 

1903 

1,139,160 

1,108,544 

2,247,704 

1904 

1,270,793 

1,219,435 

2,490,228 

1905 

1,327,335 

1,331,807 

2,659,142 

1906 

1,471,530 

1,605,832 

3,077,362 

1907 

1,514,062 

1,772,736 

3,286,798 

1908 

1,564,798 

1,780,576 

3,345,374 

1909 

1,493,170 

1,896,924 

3,390.094 

1910 

1,523,966 

1,913,285 

3,437,251 

1911 

1,723,226 

1,975,243 

3,698,469 

1912 

1,939,619 

2.225,335 

4,164,954 

1913 

2,055,582 

2,500,000 

4,555,582 

This  table  shows  that  during  the  last  twenty- 
five  years,  (especially  1900-13)  the  coke  production 
of  the  Silesian-Polish  coal  fields  increased  greatly. 
The  most  rapid  increase  was  in  the  district  of  Kar- 
wina-Ostrawa, where,  during  this  given  period,  the 
output  of  the  coke  furnaces  increased  32i5%. 
During  the  same  period  the  increase  in  the  output 
of  the  Upper  Silesian  furnaces  was  only  108%, 
while  for  the  same  period  the  total  coke  production 
of  the  entire  Silesian-Polish  basin  increased  190%. 

The  development  of  the  coke  production  in  the 
Silesian-Polish  basin  has  been  retarded    partly    by 


47 


the  prohilbitive  Russian  tariffs,  that  hindered  by 
high  custom  duties,  the  importation  of  coke  into  the 
Kingdom  of  Poland,  and  partly  by  the  policies 
(protected  by  the  government)  of  the  Austrian 
trusts  that  prevented  the  establishment  of  iron  and 
steel  works  in  Galicia.  There  is  no  doubt,  however, 
that  the  reserve  of  soft  coal  in  the  Polis'h-Silesian 
basin,  as  well  as  the  producing  capacity  of  the  coke 
factories  there,  will  not  only  be  enough  for  the 
needs  of  the  iron  and  steel  works  already  existing  in 
the  country  but  that  there  will  also  be  enough  to 
meet  the  demands  of  Polish  manufacturers  even  in 
the  remote  future.  Thus  the  steel  and  iron  production 
which  plays  such  a  role  in  all  producing  and  in- 
dustrial organisms  is  not  only  assured  in  Poland 
but  disposes  of  a  very  important  factor  of  develop- 
ment. 

To  sum  up,  the  Silesian-Polish  coal  basin,  being 
one  of  the  richest  in  all  Europe,  constitutes  a  reserve 
of  heat  energy  from  which  the  economic  and  in- 
dustrial organisms  of  Poland  and  of  all  the  adjacent 
countries  will  draw  their  strength.  It  constitutes  one 
of  the  principal  conditions  of  existence  for  the 
progressing  industry  of  the  country.  It  is  also  one 
of  the  principal  factors  of  the  future  growth  of 
Polish  industrial  production  and  one  of  the  most 
important  guarantees  that  Poland  as  a  state,  politi- 
cally independent,  will  also  be  economically  in- 
dependent, at  least  to  the  same  degree  as  the  States 
of  western  Europe  which  have  reached  a  high  level 
of  economic  development. 


IV. 
THE  NATURAL  WEALTH  OF  POLAND. 

Beside  the  immensely  rich  Silesian-Polish  coal 
fields,  there  is  other  important  mineral  wealth  in 
Poland  that  will  add  to  the  development  of  her 
future  industries  and  to  her  economic  independence. 

The  second  place  in  the  mineral  wealth  of  Po- 
land is  occupied  by  lead  and  zinc,  also  very  impor- 
tant in  economic  life,  that  are  not  only  connected  by 
their  origin  but  very  often  appear  together.  The 
richest  beds  of  lead  and  zinc  are  found  in  Upper 
Silesia  (the  carbonate  of  zinc  and  the  sulfide  of 
zinc)  where  the  output  is  90%  of  the  whole  produc- 
tion of  Poland.  Other  mines  of  these  metals  are 
found  in  the  Kingdom  of  Poland  near  Olkusz,  and 
also  in  Galicia  near  Cracow.  In  Austrian  Silesia 
the  output  of  lead  and  zinc,  up  to  the  present  time, 
has  been  insignificant.  It  must  be  noted  here  that 
a  more  exact  valuation  of  the  zinc  and  lead  ore  is 
impossible  but  it  is  certain  that  there  is  a  consider- 
able amoumt. 

Table  VI  gives  the  output  of  zinc  and  lead  in 
the  Polish  countries  for  the  period  of  twenty-five 
years  from  1890  until  the  outbreak  of  the  war, 
(especially  for  the  period  1910-13). 

This  table  shows  that  the  output  of  zinc  and 
lead  during  this  period  fluctuated  between  650  and 
700  thousand  tons.  Thus  in  the  production  of  lead 


49 


Table  VI.  —  Oi 

res  of  zinc  and  of  lead  extracted 

(metric  tons). 

Upper 

Kingdom 

Year 

Silesia 

of                  Galicia 
Poland 

Totals 

1890 

676,150 

"    "                     17,658 

693,808 

1895 

582.987 

56,160                   10,494 

649,631 

1900 

576,305 

49.441                   10,070 

635,816 

1901 

573,240 

57,315                     8,130 

638,685 

1902 

629,927 

67,261                     7,548 

704,736 

1903 

614,966 

74,969                   12,073 

702.008 

1904 

653,159 

101,588                   10,325 

765,072 

1905 

666.144 

99,437                     9,381 

774,962 

1906 

633,593 

68,919                     5,863 

708.375 

1907 

633,610 

62.040                     9,032 

704,682 

1908 

646,524 

63,532                    7,951 

718,007 

1909 

664,202 

52,165                    7,386 

723,702*) 

1910 

591,475 

58,980                    8,161 

658,616*) 

1911 

552.449 

55,051                    6,811 

614,311*) 

1912 

583,503 

59,568                    8,873 

651,944*) 

and  zinc,  the  Polish  countries  occupied  the  first 
place  in  Europe,  being  only  surpassed  in  the  whole 
world  by  the  United  States  of  America.  The  rel- 
ation of  the  output  of  zinc  to  that  of  lead  was  as 
eight  to  two;  in  other  words,  for  this  given  period, 
520  to  560  thousand  tons  of  zinc  ore  and  1^0  to  140 
thousand  tons  of  lead  ore  per  year. 

As  a  result  of  the  'relatively  important  produc- 
tion of  zinc  and  lead  iin  the  Polish  countries,  the 
metallurgical  industry  has  been  greatly  developed ; 
before  the  war  there  were  factories  in  Upper  Silesia, 
in  the  Kingdom  of  Poland  near  Olkusiz  and  Ben- 
dzin  and  also  in  Galicia  near  Cracow.  The  output  of 
lead  ore  from  Olkusz  and  the  mines  near    Cracow 


*)  In  the  Silesian  district  of  Cieszyn  the  numbers  of  tons  of 
«lnc  and  lead  ores  extracted  during  the  years  1909  to  1912  were 
respectively:  50,  15,  60  and  70. 


$0 

was  sefnt  as  raw  material  to  the  factories  in  Upper 
Silesia  where  it  was  melted  into  lead. 

Thus  the  production  of  raw  zinc  and  lead,  espec- 
ially zinc,  in  the  Polish  countries,  equaled  that  of 
Belgium  which,  before  the  war,  occupied  the  first 
place  in  Europe  and  the  second  place  in  the  world 
after  the  United  States.  In  table  VII  and  VIII  the 
figures  show  the  development  of  the  production  of 
zinc  and  lead  in  Poland  during  the  last  twenty-five 
years.  


Table  VII.  —  Production  of 

zinc  (metric 

tons). 

Upper 

Kingdom 

Year 

Silesia 

of 
Poland 

Galicia 

Totals 

1890 

88,699 

3,776 

2,173 

99,648 

1895 

95,430 

5,034 

2.526 

102,990 

1900 

102,213 

5,967 

3.365 

111,545 

1901 

107,967 

6,109 

3,683 

117,759 

1902 

116,979 

8,271 

4,898 

130,148 

1903 

118,522 

9,902 

5,518 

133,942 

1904 

126,493 

10.612 

5,770 

142.875 

1905 

129,013 

7,638 

6.550 

143.201 

1906 

135,970 

9,380 

7.526 

152.876 

1907 

137,736 

9,392 

8,302 

155.430 

1908 

141,461 

8,841 

9.721 

160,023 

1909 

139,255 

7,947 

8,358 

155,560 

1910 

139,733 

8.638 

8,866 

157,237 

1911 

155.628 

9,937 

11,878 

177,443 

1912 

168,496 

8.764 

13,222 

190,482 

1913 

169,439 

7.608 

13.850 

190,897 

These  figures  show  that  there  was  an  immense 
development  in  the  production  of  zinc  ore  in  Poland. 
After  the  Belgian  production,  that  of  Poland  is  the 
most  important  in  Europe  and  third  in  importance 
in  the  world,  furnishing  more  than  21%  of  the 
entire  production  of  the  world.  From  the  point  of 
view  of  lead  production,  the  Polish  countries  also 
occupied  an  important     though     not     predominant 


51 


place  among  the  world  producers  of  lead.  The 
position  of  the  Polish  lead  metallurgical  industry 
is  prominent.  In  the  production  of  lead  in  Europe 
before  the  war,  Poland  was  only  surpassed  by 
Spain,  Germany  and  Belgium.  Thus,  the  wealth  of 
zinc  and  lead  in  Poland  is  yet  another  important 
factor  in  the  economic  independence  and  industrial 
development  of  Poland. 

In  economic  value,  iron-ore  is  known  to  occupy 
the  second  place  after  coal.  Iron-ore  is  found  in  dif- 
ferent parts  of  the  Polish  countries  and  over  large 
areas.  A  valuation  of  the  reserve  of  iron-ore,  even 
approximate,  is  difficult,  because  of  the  lack  of  suf- 


Table  VIII.  - 

—  Production  of  lead 

(metric  tons). 

Year 

Totals 

Year 

Totals 

1890 

19,622 

1906 

38,372 

1895 

20.017 

1907 

32,937 

1900 

24,925 

1908 

38,381 

1901 

22,733 

1909 

37,360 

1902 

30,209 

1910 

41,261 

1903 

42,191 

1911 

41,811 

1904 

39,795 

1912 

41,313 

1905 

50,973 

1913 

39,922 

ficient  data,  but  it  is  estimated  that  the  reserve  of 
iron-ore  in  the  Kingdom  of  Poland  is  from  300  to  350 
million  tons,  containing  from  120  to  140  million 
tons  of  iron  metal.  There  is  about  the  same  quantity 
of  iron-ore  in  Upper  Silesia.  There  is  none  at  all  in 
Silesia  of  Cieszyn  and  very  little  in  Galicia,  but  as 
there  has  never  been  a  thorough  geological  survey 
made  of  the  Kingdom  of  Poland  and  Galicia,  it  is 
probable  that  the  approximate  estimation  of  be- 
tween 700  and  800  million  tons  is  far  too  low. 


52 


There  are  four  principal  centers  where  iron-ore 
is  found  in  Poland:  1st  in  Upper  Silesia,  in  the  Si- 
ksian-Polish  coal  basin  ;  2nd  to  the  south  and  north- 
west of  Czenstochowa,  3rd  in  the  government  of 
Radom,  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  Holy  Cross 
Mountains,  4th  south  of  Kalisz  where,  during  recent 
years,  important  beds  have  been  found. 


Table 

IX.  —  Iron 

ores  extracted  (metric 

tons). 

Year 

Upper 
Silesia 

Kingdom 

of                   Gallcia 
Poland 

Totals 

1890 
1900 
1905 
1910 
1912 

758,000 
407,000 
315,000 
234,000 
165.000 

229,000                     9,500 

484,000 

300,000                     8,100 

173,000                     4.200 

120,000                   16,000 

996,500 
891,000 
623,100 
411,200 
S01,000 

Table  IX  gives  the  relative  figures  of  the  out- 
put of  iron-ore  in  Poland. 

This  table  shows  that  during  the  course  of  the 
last  twenty-five  years,  before  the  war,  the  output 
of  iron-ore  steadly  diminished.  There  were  several 
reasons  for  this. 

In  Upper  Silesia,  the  decrease  in  the  output  was 
caused  by  the  exhaustion  of  the  seams.  In  the  King- 
dom of  Poland,  by  the  growing  competition  of  the 
rich  metallic  ore  from  southern  Russia,  while  in 
Kalisz  and  other  districts  the  exploitation  of  the 
mines  was  hindered  by  the  inadequate  system  of 
railroads. 

In  spite  of  the  decrease  in  the  output  of  the 
iron-ore  mines;  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  Polish  ore 
only  contains,  (on  an  average  15  to  30%),  at  most 


53 


40%  of  pure  metal,  the  production  of  pig-iron  in 
Poland  developed  considerably  during  the  last 
twenty-five  years  because  Poland  possessed  the  soft 
coal  so  important  in  the  manufacture  of  iron. 

As  there  was  not  enough  native  ore  to  supply 
the  demands  of  the  iron  and  steel  manufacturers 
established  in  Poland,  great  quantities  were  import- 
ed from  Sweden,  Hungary  and  Central  Russia. 
During  the  last  twelve  years  the  metallurgical  in- 
dustry of  Poland  was  based  on  the  importation  of 
rich  foreign  ore.  But,  before  the  war,  Germany, 
Belgium  and  England  also,  used  great  quantities  of 
rich  imported  ore  in  their  metallurgical  industries. 
Thus  the  situation  of  the  iron  industry  in  Poland 
was  no  worse  than  in  the  States  of  Western  Europe 
having  the  greatest  industrial  development. 

The  production  of  pig-iron  in  the  Polish 
countries  developed  greatly,  especially  in  Upper 
Silesia  and  in  the  Kingdom  of  Poland.  But  this  in- 
dustry is  not  yet  established  in  Galicia,  principally 
because  of  the  strong  opposition  of  the  powerful 
Austrian  iron  trusts.  In  Silesia  of  Cieszyn  there  is 
only  one  factory,  near  the  town  of  Cieszyn,  which 
has  an  unimportant  yearly  output. 

Table  X.  shows  the  development  of  the  pro- 
duction of  pig-iron  during  the  last  twenty-five  years. 

During  this  given  period  the  production  of  pig- 
iron  in  the  Polish  countries  increased  from  100  to 
125%. 

In  the  Kingdom  of  Poland  there  was  a  remark- 
able increase  in  the  number  of  blast  furnaces,  and 
for  this  given  period  the  increase  in  iron  production 
was  230%.  The  increase  in  Upper  Silesia  for  this 
period  was  less  —  100  to  110%. 


54 


The  development  of  the  Polish  production  of 
pig-iron  was  subject  to  a  series  of  harmful,  economic 
and  political  influences;  protection  by  the  Russian 
government  of  the  importation  of  iron-ores  from 
southern  Russia  to  the  market  of  the  Kingdom  of 
Poland,  duties  levied  on  coke  imported  to  the  metal- 
lurgical factories  of  Russian  Poland  from  Upper 
Silesia  of  Cieszym ;  government  boycott  of  the 
products  of  Polish  iron  and  steel  works ;  the  opposi- 


Table  X. 

—  Production  of  iron 

(metric  tons). 

Kingdom 

Tear 

Upper 

of 

Totals 

Silesia 

Poland 

1890 

507,000 

127,000 

634,000 

1895 

532,000 

190,000 

722,000 

1900 

744,000 

301,000 

1,045,000 

1901 

641,000 

324,000 

965,000 

1902 

685.000 

283,000 

968.000 

1903 

748,000 

306.000 

1,054,000 

1904 

826,000 

374,000 

1,200,000 

1906 

861,000 

252,000 

1.113,000 

1906 

901,000 

303,000 

1,204,000 

1907 

939,000 

283,CO0 

1,222.000 

1908 

928,000 

210,000 

1,138.000 

1909 

850,000 

216,000 

1,066,000 

1910 

901,000 

251,000 

1,152.000 

1911 

963,000 

347,000 

1.310.000 

1912 

1,048,000 

393,000 

1,441,000 

1913 

995,000 

419.000 

1,414,000 

tion  of  the  powerful  iron  and  steel  trusts  of  Austria 
to  the  establishment  of  manufactories  in  Galicia; 
the  absolute  closing  of  this  important  market  to  the 
products  of  the  steel  and  iron  works  of  the  other 
parts  of  Poland;  lastly,  the  small  consumption  of 
pig-iron  in  the  Polish  home  market,  which  is  one  of 
the  results  of  the  economic  policy  of  the  sharing 
States  that  do  not  take  into  account  the  economic 


55 


needs  or  interests  of  the  Polish  countries.  However, 
notwithstanding  all  these  unfavorable  influences, 
the  development  in  the  production  of  pig-iron  in  the 
Polish  countries  has  been  serious.  Before  the  war, 
Poland  occupied  an  average  place  among  the  Euro- 
pean producers  of  this  metal,  so  necessary  to  econ- 
omic life. 

If  a  fundamental  change  in  the  political  and 
economical  conditions  of  Poland  could  take  place, 
the  metallurgical  industry  based  upon  a  larger  home 
market  would  certainly  develop  greatly.  This  has 
had  up  to  the  present  time  a  relatively  small  capa- 
city (the  annual  use  of  iron  per  head  in  the  Polish 
countries  has  been  unimportant,  only  about  20 
kilograms).  A  modification  in  the  general  situation 
would  surely  accelerate  the  consumption  of  iron, 
while  the  capacity  of  the  home  market  would  be 
increased  and  would  contribute  to  the  intense 
development  of  the  production.  Iron,  it  must  be 
remembered  is  found  in  Poland  under  conditions 
quite  as  favorable  for  development,  (especially  that, 
which  concerns  the  elements  of  the  production  it- 
self) as  in  the  most  favored  countries  of  Western 
Europe. 

Petroleum  occupies  an  important  place  in 
the  mineral  wealth  of  the  Polish  countries.  It  is 
found  only  in  Galicia,  and  up  to  the  present  time 
has  been  the  principal  mineral  utilized  there.  The 
Galician  oil-wells  extend  almost  the  whole  length 
of  the  northern  Sub-Carpathian  Zone,  from  Gorlice 
(Western  Galicia)  to  the  Bukowina  boundary. 

The  principal  centre  of  the  production  of  petro- 
leum in  Galicia  was  in  the  neighborhood  of  Bory- 
elaw  (Eastern  Galicia)  where  there  is  am  enormous 


56 


reserve  of  oil  and  where,  before  the  war,  the  produc- 
tion was  95%  of  the  whole  Galician  crude-oil  output. 
Another  big  centre,  though  far  less  important,  is  at 
Krosno  where  the  output  has  recently  been  about 
5%  of  the  total  production  in  Galicia. 

The  production  of  petroleum  in  Galicia  is  com- 
paratively -a  new  branch  of  the  mining  industry.  Its 
origin  goes  back  to  the  fifties  of  the  last  century.  It 
was  then  that  small  quantities  of  petroleum  began 
to  be  Qibtained  in  the  neighborhood  of  Gorlice,  (in 
the  west)  and  around  Kolomea  (in  the  east).  The 
industry  did  not  develop  to  any  extent  until  the 
rich  fields  around  Boryslaw  were  discovered  and 
the  Canadian  system  of  sinking  wells  was  adopted 
(1884).  Later  the  system  was  perfected  (called  the 
Galician  system)  and  it  became  possible  to  sink 
wells  to  the  depth  of  1,500  and  even  2,000  meters. 
Galicia  has  become  one  of  the  greatest  and  most 
important  producers  of  petroleum  in  the  world.  Al- 
though less  important  than  the  great  American  and 
Russian  (Caucasus)  productions,  still  her  role  is 
considerable,  especially  in  Europe  as  Table  XI 
shows. 

These  figures  show  that  the  Polish  petroleum 
productioin  concentrated  in  Galicia  occupies  an  hon- 
orable place  in  the  European  market.  The  import- 
ance of  the  Polish  oil  industry  is  increased  by  the 
close  proximity  of  Galicia  (in  the  very  center  of 
Europe  we  may  say)  to  the  great  economically 
developed  continental  States  that  consume  such 
quantities  of  refined  petroleum  and  other  hydrocar- 
bons mixed  with  petroleum  such  as  benzine,  heavy 
oils,  naphtha  and  the  heavy  oil  by-products. 


57 


It  is  difficult  to  estimate  the  reserve  of  the 
Galician  oil-wells  but  there  is  no  doubt  that  it  is 
very  important,  as  the  petroleum  zone  is  several 
hundred  kilometers  in  length,  and,  before  the  war, 
new   springs     were   continually  discovered.     Upon 


Table  XI.  — 

Production  of  petroleum  (metric  tons). 

United 

Dutch 

Year 

States 

Russia 

Indies 

Poland 

Roumania    India 

1890 

6.003,000 

3.631,000 

92,000 

42,000 

15.000 

1895 

6,929,000 

6,509,000 

133,000 

215,000 

76,000 

49,000 

1900 

8,334,000 

9,927,000 

425.000 

326,000 

250,000 

141,000 

1901 

9,090,000 

11,157,000 

652.000 

452,000 

270,000 

187,000 

1902 

11,629.000 

10.551.000 

800.000 

576,000 

310,000 

212,000 

1903 

13,160,000 

9.902,000 

870.000 

727.000 

384,000 

829.000 

1904 

16,085.000 

10,742,000 

1.036.000 

827.000 

504,000 

473,000 

1905 

18,647,000 

7,499.000 

1.158,000 

801,000 

639,000 

579,000 

1906 

17,416,000 

8.036.000 

1,188,000 

760,000 

890,000 

562,000 

1907 

22,845,000 

8.443,000 

1.178,000 

1,170,000 

1,151,000 

608.000 

1908 

24,575,000 

8,582,000 

1,143,000 

1,718,000 

1,150,000 

706,000 

1909 

25,093,000 

9.112,000 

1,736,000 

2,086.000 

1,293,000 

934,000 

1910 

28,969.000 

9.367,000 

1,881,000 

1.761,000 

1.345,000 

859,000 

1911 

28.977.000 

9,147,000 

1,670,000 

1,462,000 

1.545,000 

902,000 

1912 

29.664.000 

9.263.000 

1.520,000 

1,187,000 

1,806,000 

900.000 

the  authority  of  the  Polish  geologist  Szajnocha, 
professor  at  the  University  of  Cracow,  a  very 
conservative  estimate  would  allow  a  reserve  of  300 
million  tons  of  crude-oil.  It  is  also  estimated  that  the 
Polish  petroleum  production  will  not  only  remain 
for  many  years  to  come  at  the  present  high  level, 
but  that  it  will  become  even  greater,  reaching  a 
higher  place  on  the  world  market  and  increasing  its 
value  as  a  powerful  factor,  in  the  independent  eco- 
nomic development  of  Poland. 


58 


Another  source  of  mineral  wealth  in  Poland 
is  Salt. 

The  great  salt  mines  of  Poland  have  been 
celebrated  for  centuries. 

Beds  of  rock  salt  are  found  in  western  Galicia, 
in  the  neighborhood  of  Wieliczka  and  Bochnia  and 
in  the  Grand  Duchy  of  Posen  near  Inowroclaw.  In 
recent  years  extensive  new  beds  of  rock  salt  have 
been  discovered  in  the  southern  part  of  Upper 
Silesia  near  Pszczyna.  Besides  these  rich  beds  of 
kitchen  salt  there  are  many  salt  springs  in  the 
Polish  countries  from  which  the  salt  is  extracted  in 
factories.  Before  the  war,  there  were  nine  of  these 
salt  factories  in  Galicia,  mostly  in  the  eastern  part. 
At  Ciechocinek  in  the  Kingdom  of  Poland,  there 
was  one  medium-sized  salt  factory.  In  Prussian 
Poland  at  Inowroclaw  there  was  a  factory  and  a 
mine,  but  of  little  importance.  Potasium  salts,  so  im- 
portant to  agriculture  as  artificial  fertilizers,  were 
also  exploited  to  a  small  extent,  before  the  war. 

Table  XII  gives  the  relative  figures  of  the  prod- 
uction of  rock  and  factory  salt  ini  Poland  during  the 
last  twenty-four  years. 

Table  XII.  —  Production  of  salt  (metric  tons). 

Grand  Duchy    Kingdom 
Year  Galicia  of  Posen       of  Poland  Totals 


1890 

128,000 

40,000 

3,000 

171,000 

1900 

135,000 

53,000 

3,000 

191,000 

1905 

176,000 

30,000 

3,500 

209,500 

1910 

156,000 

33,000 

3,000 

192,000 

1912 

170,000 

32,000 

4.000 

206,000 

Thus,  during  recent  years,  the  production    of 
salt  only  amoufnted    to    about  200,000  tons  a  year. 


^ 


This  small  output,  considering  the  great  amount  of 
salt  in  Poland,  was  due  to  the  fact  that  from  Galicia 
the  salt  could  not  be  sent  into  the  Kingdom  of  Pol- 
and because  of  the  prohibitive  tariffs.  Thus  chemical 
industry  could  not  develop  in  the  Kingdom  of  Pol- 
and because  of  the  lack  of  salt  which  is  one  of  the 
important  raw  materials,  while  in  Galicia  the 
chemical  industry  was  checked  by  the  same  causes 
that  hindered  the  general  industrial  development  of 
that  province. 

The  great  salt  wealth  of  Galicia,  Upper  Silesia 
and  Posnania  (it  must  be  remembered  that  from 
the  point  of  view  of  their  mineral  wealth  the  Polish 
countries  have  not  yet  been  sufficiently  studied)  can 
become  one  of  the  foundations  for  a  'brilliant  devel- 
opment of  the  chemical  industry  and  must  be  con- 
sidered as  one  of  the  important  factors  of  the  inde- 
pendent economic  existence  of  Poland. 

There  are  also  somewhat  important  beds  of 
raw-material  minerals  of  secondary  order  that  have 
great  value,  either  for  the  pottery  industry  (differ- 
ent clays,  refractory  and  common)  ;  for  the  chemical 
industry  (phosphorite,  sulphur  and  mineral  wax) 
or  for  building  stone,  without  speaking  of  the  great 
wealth  of  turf  and  lignite  that  also  have  an  economic 
value. 

Besides  the  great  mineral  wealth,  the  Polish 
countries  have  other  natural  wealth  of  immense 
importance  for  industrial  development;  the  im- 
mense forests  that  already  before  the  war  served  as 
a  basis  for  the  wood  industry  and  provided  for  its 
future ;  great  tracts  of  land  adapted  to  the  cultiv- 
ation of  beets  favored  the  development  of  the  Pol- 
ish sugar  industry,  which  as  has  been  remarked. 


60 


occupied  one  of  the  principal  places  in  Europe 
before  the  war ;  also  great  tracts  of  land  suitable  for 
the  cultivation  of  flax  and  hemp  constituted  an  im- 
portant factor  in  the  future  development  of  the  tex- 
tile industry,  based  on  these  raw  materials. 

To  sum  up,  the  great  natural  wealth  with 
which  the  Polish  countries  have  been  so  generously 
endowed,  both  in  quantity  and  quality,  constitute 
one  of  the  decisive  factors  of  the  economic  independ- 
ence of  Poland.  The  economic  territory  of  Poland 
equals,  in  this  regard,  the  countries  of  Europe 
that,  before  the  war,  were  considered  economically 
independent  and  that  really  were  independent,  with- 
in the  limits  assigned  by  the  world  standard  of 
economic  life  in  the  states  and  countries  of  Europe. 


61 


THE  POLISH  COUNTRIES  AS  A  RESERVOIR 
OF  LABOR. 

The  Polish  countries,  before  the  war,  were  a 
huge  reservoir  of  human  energy.  The  reserve  and 
constant  growth  of  this  energy  considerably  ex- 
ceeded the  demand  for  labor.  The  result  was  that 
each  year  great  numbers  of  Poles  emigrated  from 
their  native  land.  Some  of  them  going  for  short  per- 
iods into  western  Europe,  especially  Germany,  for- 
med the  great  Polish  seasonal  emigration.  Others 
going  for  a  longer  time,  often  forever  when  they 
crossed  the  seas.  During  the  last  twelve  years  the 
Polish  emigration  to  America  reached  the  ener- 
mous  figure  of  almost  four  million.  These  Poles 
are  employed  chiefly  in  industry  in  North  America 
and  in  agriculture  in  South  America. 

This  one  fact,  that  Polaind  occupies  one  of  the 
first  places  among  the  countries  of  great  peasant 
and  labor  emigration,  proves  that  the  economic 
development  of  the  country  is  insufficient.  Economic 
industry  could  not  prosper,  notwithstanding  the 
great  natural  wealth  and  the  favorable  geographical 
situation  of  the  country  in  the  center  of  Europe, 
because  of  the  unfavorable  conditions  caused  by  the 
economic  and  political  policies  of  the  sharing  States. 
It  also  proves  indisputably  that  the  Polish  count- 
ries have  a  great  reserve  of  human  force,  wtiich  un- 
der favorable  conditions  —  to  be  explicit  —  in  a 
Poland   politically   and   economically   independent, 


62 


could  be  utilized  at  home,  and  would  contribute  to 
the  growth  of  industry,  commerce  and  agriculture, 
in  a  word,  to  the  entire  producing  organism  of  the 
country. 

The  Polish  countries  are  among  the  most  dense- 
ly populated  countries  of  Europe.  In  certain 
districts  of  Poland,  the  population  is  perhaps  as 
dense  as  anywhere  in  Europe. 

Figures  derived  from  the  Austrian  and  Ger- 
man census  for  1910  and  from  calculations  made 
to  reduce  to  the  same  date  the  older  Russian  data, 
of  the  population  of  ethnographical  Poland  and  of 
the  territories  belonging  economically  to  it,  are 
given  in  Table  XIIP). 

Table  XIII.  —  Area  and  population. 

Area  Inhabitants 

Provinces  sq.  kilom.  Population    p.  sq.  kilom. 

Russian  Poland: 

Kingdom    of    Poland 123,326  12,476,000  101 

Lithuania  &  White  Russia  304,356  12,709,000  42 

Ukraina    165,000  12,337,000  75 

Austrian  Poland: 

Galicia    78,497  8,026,000  102 

Silesia  of  Cieszyn    2,222  435,000  196 

Prussian  Poland: 

Upper  Silesia    13,230  2,208,000  167 

•Grand  Duchy  of  Posen...  28,989  2,100,000  72 

West  Prussia    25,553  1,703,000  67 

East    Prussia     38,724  2,064,000  53 


1)  Of  the  provinces  included  in  table  Xin,  that  were  parts 
of  the  ancient  Polish  Republic,  the  parts  that  are  ethnographic- 
ally  Polish,  are  made  up  of  the  Kingdom  of  Poland.  Western 
Galicia  and  the  greater  part  of  Central  Galicia,  Silesia  of  Cie- 
szyn and  by  almost  all  of  Prussian  Poland,  except  the  narrow 
districts  near  to  Pomerania,  Prussian  Silesia  and  the  north- 
eastern part  of  East  Prussia. 

But  that  which  is  decisive  here  is  the  fact  that  with  the 
exception  of  a  part  of  Whlta  Russia  and  Ruthenia,  all  the  terri- 
tory included  in  this  table  is  economically  Polish.  The  bound- 
aries though  ethnographically  weak,  are  solidly  joined  to  the 
central  mass  and  form  with  It  economic  Poland. 


According  to  this  table  the  economic  territory 
of  Poland  includes,  grosso-modo,  besides  all  of 
Prussian  Poland,  Austrian  Poland,  and  the  King- 
dom of  Poland,  the  provinces  of  Wilno,  Kowno, 
Volhynia  and  almost  all  of  Podolia,  that  is  to  say, 
a  territory  covering  an  area  of  545,00  square  kilo- 
meters, peopled  by  42  million-  inhabitants  —  being 
77  people  to  a  square  kilometer. 

So,  by  the  extent  of  territory  within  her  econ- 
omic boundaries,  Poland  is  larger  than  the  German 
Empire  before  the  war,  larger  than  France  and 
only  exceeded  by  European  Russia  and  Austria- 
Hungary.  The  population  was  exceeded  only  by 
that  of  Russia,  the  German  Empire,  Austria-Hun- 
gary and  England.  For  density  of  population  she 
follows  after  Belgium,  England,  Italy  and  Germany. 

The  place  of  the  Polish  countrieij,  taken  within 
their  economic  boundaries,  among  the  principal 
European  States  for  area,  number  and  density  of 
population  is  shown  in  table  XIV. 

Table  XIV.  Area  and  population. 

Area  Inhabitants 

Countries  sq.  kilom.  Population        p.  sq.  kilom. 

European     Russia  4,816,000  93,400,000  20 

Germany    540,000  65,000,000  120 

Austria-Hungary  676,000  51,000,000  78 

Great    Britain     ..  314,000  45,000,000  144 

Poland 545,000  42,000,000  77 

France 536,000  40,000,000  73 

Italy 287,000  35,000,000  121 

Belgium 29,455  3,700,000  252 

The  density  of  the  population  in  the  Polish 
countries  (77  inhabitants  per  square  kilometer)  is 
high,  because  a  great  part  of  Poland  is  agricultural. 


64 


having  great  landed  estates  which,  as  is  well  known, 
always  have  an  unfavorable  influence  on  the  pro- 
gress of  the  density  of  population. 

This  relatively  high  density  of  population  is 
due  chiefly  to  the  extraordinary  density  of  the 
population  in  the  industrially  developed  parts  of 
Poland.  Thus,  the  average  population  of  the  King- 
dom of  Poland,  during  recent  years,  was  more  than 
101  inhabitants  per  square  kilometer.  In  Piotr- 
kow,  the  most  industrial  government,  there  were 
171,  in  the  governnuent  of  Warsaw  151,  in  Kalisz 
113,  in  Kielce  103,  in  Silesia  of  Cieszyn  196  and  in 
Upper  Silesia  167  inhabitants  per  square  kilometer. 
Thus  the  density  of  population  in  the  industrial  dis- 
tricts of  Poland  compares  favorably  with  the  most 
developed  industrial  countries  of  Europe. 

The  great  strength  of  Poland,  as  a  reservoir  of 
human  force,  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  up  to  the 
present,  she  has  had  the  highest  natural  increase  in 
population  (higher  birth  than  death  rate).  Accord- 
ing to  Dr.  Josef  Busek,  Professor  at  the  University 
of  Lwow,  the  annual  excess  of  births  per  10,000  in- 
habitants during  the  period  1900 — 1911,  in  the 
government  of  Volhynia  was  199,  in  the  Grand 
Duchy  of  Posen  and  in  Upper  Silesia  197,  in  West 
Prussia  181,  in  Silesia  of  Cieszyn  149,  in  the  govern- 
ment of  Podolia  180,  in  the  Kingdom  of  Poland  147, 
in  Galicia  146,  in  East  Prussia  123.  In  the  govern- 
ment of  Kowno  the  figure  is  73.  This  is  the  only 
district  where  the  figure  falls  below  100  —  the 
lowest  figure  for  Europe. 

Poland  thus  leads  in  the  increase  in  population. 
T'he  average  figure  of  the  natural  increase  in 
population  in  Europe,  during  the  last  ten  years,  is 


65 


at)out  150  per  10,000  inhabitants.  Researches  made 
on  the  influence  of  social,  economic,  cultural  and 
confessional  factors  that  determine  this  great  in- 
crease in  population,  make  it  possible  to  state  with- 
out exaggeration  that  during  the  next  ten  years 
Poland  will  have  a  greater  increase  than  any  other 
country  in  Europe,  excepting,  perhaps,  Russia. 

Thus,  the  Polish  countries,  within  their  econ- 
omic boundaries,  constitute  a  powerful  reservoir  of 
human  energy  that  differs  from  the  other  labor 
reservoirs  of  Europe  by  its  much  more  rapid  and 
important  growth. 

The  continued  growth  of  the  population  and  the 
yearly  increase  of  available  labor,  has,  unfortunately 
not  been  accompanied  by  a  like  expansion  of  produc- 
ing enterprises.  The  development  of  industry  cf 
agricultural  products,  progressed  much  less  rapidly 
and  as  a  result  the  work  market  was  always  over- 
stocked. Offers  considerably  exceeding  the  demand 
forced  the  continual  emigration  of  the  workingmen. 
The  result  was  that  the  Polish  economic  emigra- 
tion into  the  countries  of  the  old  and  new  world 
grew  more  and  more  extensively. 

The  economic  emigration  of  the  Polish  count- 
ries took  two  forms:  the  continental  seasonal 
emigration  which  was  composed  almost  entirely  of 
farm  laborers ;  and  the  permanent  overseas  emigra- 
tion composed  of  mechanics  and  industial  working- 
men  together  with  great  numbers  of  men  without 
special  training  who  took  with  them  to  North  or 
South  America  only  their  health  and  their  strength. 
The  Polish  emigration,  both  seasonal  and  perman- 
ent, increased  greatly  during  recent  years. 


66 

The  seasonal  emigration  included  a  great  num- 
ber of  workingmen  who  went  into  western  Europe — 
Germany  especially  —  for  a  certain  period,  usually 
the  farming  season.  During  the  la;st  ten  years  this 
emigration  has  grown  steadily  greater  until  in  the 
years  just  before  the  war,  there  were  ever  increas- 
ing numbers  of  Polish  workingmen  to  be  found  in 
Belgium,  France,  Sweden,  Denmark,  Norway  and 
Switzerland. 

However,  the  principal  seasonal  emigration 
was  always  toward  Germany,  where  each  spring 
crowds  of  workingmen  and  girls  went  in  search  of 
work. 

It  is  impossible  to  have  an  accurate  figure  con- 
cerning this  emigration  but  according  to  the  figures 
.of  the  central  Prussian  office  of  farm  laborers^)  the 
following  table  gives  the  number  of  workingmen 
having  passed  the  frontier  bureaus. 


Years 

Kingdom 
of  Poland 

Galicia 

Total 

1907-8 

210,045 

139,953 

349,998 

1908-9 

212,239 

149,676 

361,915 

1909-10 

239.879 

165,403 

405.282 

1910-11 

253,143 

160,285 

413.428 

1911-12 

281,813 

153,762 

435.575 

1912-13 

285,829 

166.474 

452.303 

1)  The  German -Central  office  for  farm  laborers  (Deutsche 
Feldarbeiterzentralstelle)  with  the  central  office  at  Berlin,  was 
founded  about  eleven  years  ago  by  a  group  of  German  Political 
Associations  in  agreement  with  certain  German  agricultural 
circles,  for  the  purpose  of  economically  fighting  the  Poles. 
Lrfiter  this  Association  became  an  Official  Institution  of  the 
Prussian  government  and  most  of  the  other  Federated  States. 
It  was  given  control  of  the  seasonal  laborers  at  the  frontiers 
and  authorized  to  deliver  certificates  to  them,  which  gave  then* 
the  right  to  look  for  work  on  German  tprritory.  It  is  impossible 
here  to  give  all  the  activities,  so  harmful  to  the  Polish  emigra- 
tion, of  this  Central  Office  and  its  branches  on  the  frontiers. 
It  is  sufficient  to  note  that  the  Prussian  ministerial  ordinances, 
as  well  as  those  (of  most  of  the  other  German  States,  gave  over 
this  imm<?nse'  crowd  of  emigrants  into  the  hands  of  this  Asso- 


67 


This  table  shows  that  the  number  of  seasonal 
laborers  from  the  Kingdom  of  Poland  and  Galicia 
(tlie  greatest  number  being  from  these  two  parts  of 
Poland)  steadily  increased  until  just  before  the  war 
the  figure  reached  at  least  half  a  million.  These 
figures  of  the  central  office  are  always  below  the 
reality.  Besides  this,  ever  increasing  numbers  of 
the  seasonal  workingmen  found  work  in  German 
industrial  enterprises.  Thus  the  role  and  value  of 
Polish  emigration  for  German  industry  increased 
from  year  to  year.  The  Polish  seasonal  emigration 
to  other  European  countries  was  much  less  import- 
ant and  can  be  estimated  at  about  100,000. 

According  to  the  annual  reports  of  the  Com- 
missioner General  of  Immigration  for  the  Period 
1902-1912,  1,030,000  Poles  landed  in  North  Ameri- 
ca, not  including  the  many  Hebrews,  natives  of  the 
Polish  countries  and  great  numbers  of  Ruthenians. 
Table  XVI  gives  the  figures  for  the  Polish  emigra- 
tion for  the  years  1900  to  1912. 


In  1900 

46.900    1 

In  1907 

138,000 

„   1901 

43,600    1 

„   1908 

68,100 

„   1902 

69,600    1 

„   1909 

77,500 

„   1903 

82,300    1 

„   1910 

128,300 

„   1904 

67,700    1 

,,   1911 

71,488 

„   1905 

102,400    1 

„   1912 

85.100 

„      1906  95,800         I 

Very  few  Poles  from  Prussian  Poland  emigrate 
to  America.  They  go  mostly  to  the  western  provin- 
ces of  Germany.  They  go  to  the  powerful  industrial 
centers  of  Westphalia,     to     the     Rfhine  provinces. 


ciation  and  the  German  and  Prussian  agriculturalists.  The 
moment  the  Polish  workman  had  passed  the  frontier  and  receiv- 
ed the  certificate  of  the  Central  Office,  he  became  the  slave  of 
the  office  and  of  the  German  farmer  to  whom  the  Office  had 
•old  him,  In  the  liberal  sense  of  the  word. 


68 


Berlin,  Hamburg  and  into  the  industrial  districts  of 
the  Saare.  In  the  Westphalia-Rhinian  district, 
before  the  war,  there  was  a  Polish  population  of 
from  450,000  to  500,000.  In  this  region  there  are 
150,000  Poles  working  in  the  coal  district  alone. 
These  figures  show  the  great  infuence  Polish 
emigration  from  Prussian  Poland  had  on  German 
industry.  This  industry  developed  in  great  part 
because  of  this  wealth  of  huma>n  energy  from  Poland 
and  again  the  development  of  this  industry  was  the 
magnet  that  drew  the  Polish  emigration  toward 
those  countries. 

Thus,  before  the  war,  there  were  several  million 
Polish  industrial  and  agricultural  laborers  working 
in  the  countries  of  Europe,  in  North  and  South 
America.  Poland,  possessing  together  with  Russia 
the  greatest  increase  of  population,  was  unfor- 
tuna,tely  so  little  developed  economically  that  it 
could  not  furnish  work  for  the  mass  of  its  people. 
This  is  Why,  together  with  Italy,  she  has  become 
the  principal  source  of  emigration. 

The  expansion  of  national  production  alone  will 
stop  this  abnormal  phenomenon.  The  development 
of  industry,  of  commerce,  of  ways  of  communication, 
the  intensive  utilizing  of  the  country's  great  natural 
wealth,  has  for  a  condition  the  reconstruction  of  the 
Polish  countries  into  a  State  organism :  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  State,  united  and  independent.  This  is 
the  condition,  sine  qua  non,  of  the  development  of 
the  economic  organism  of  Poland,  of  the  enlarging 
of  her  national  workshops,  giving  work  to  millions 
of  her  population  who  have  until  now  been  forced 
to  search  the  world  over  for  work  and  bread. 


VI. 

THE  RESERVES  OF  CAPITAL  IN  THE 
POLISH  COUNTRIES. 

Together  with  natural  wealth  and  reserve  of 
man-power,  capital  constitutes  one  of  the  funda- 
mental factors  of  modern  production.  While  dis- 
cussing the  conditions  and  elements  of  the  economic 
independence  of  the  Polish  countries,  the  question 
of  the  reserve  of  capital  to  be  found  in  Poland  must 
not  be  neglected.  The  question  of  whether  the  in- 
dispensable capital  needed  for  the  extension  of  its 
economic  organism  is  to  be  found  in  Poland  must 
not  be  passed  over  in  silence ;  of  whether  the  work 
of  past  generations  is  condensed  into  a  capital 
sufficient  to  utilize  all  of  the  natural  wealth  of  the 
country.  It  is  an  undeniable  fact  that  the  political, 
social  and  economic  conditions  under  which  the 
whole  population  of  economic  Poland,  (no  matter 
what  nationality  they  were)  has  lived,  during  the 
whole  of  the  nineteenth  century  and  up  to  the 
beginning  of  the  war,  has  been  unfavorable  to  the 
accumulation  of  capital. 

The  Polish  countries,  since  the  time  of  the 
partitions,  have  been  systematically  ruined,  either 
by  wars  or  by  the  policies  of  the  sharing  govern- 
ments, in  regard  to  them.  The  national  wealth,  that 
at  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  and  the  first  half  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  was  represented  alone  by  the 
tillable  land  and  by  great  landed  estates,  was  ruined 


K 


70 


by  the  Kings  of  Prussia,  by  the  Emperors  of  Austria 
and  Russia.  Frederick  the  Great,  Frederic-William 
III,  Joseph  and  Ferdinand  of  Austria,  Catherine  II, 
Paul,  but  more  that  all  the  others,  Nicholas  I  ruined, 
although  by  different  methods,  the  Polish  in- 
heritance. Each  revolutionary  movement,  each  dis- 
covered conspiracy  brought  new  confiscations  of 
immense  wealth,  most  of  it  lost  to  Poland  forever. 
Although  the  destruction  of  Polish  property  by 
violence  has  ceased  during  the  last  fifty  or  sixty 
years,  still  the  sharing  Governments  have  hindered 
fhe  growth  of  capital  in  the  Polish  countries  by 
their  peculiar  economic  policies.  The  principal  object 
of  their  policies  has  been  to  accelerate  the  accumul- 
ation of  capital  in  the  thoroughly  German  or  thor- 
oughly Russian  parts,  of  Germany,  of  Austria  or  of 
Russia:  Polish  interests  were  either  neglected  or 
voluntarily  sacrificed. 

It  is  clear  that  under  such  particularly  unfavor- 
able conditions  the  growth  of  capital  progressed 
slowly,  that  it  remained  far  below  what  it  would 
have  been,  if  the  collective  life  of  Poland  had 
developed  normally,  in  the  western  and  European 
sense  of  the  word.  Thus  we  see  that  the  situation  of 
Poland,  regarding  capital,  was  far  less  favorable 
than  that  of  the  western  countries  of  Europe  which 
had  possessed,  during  long  years,  a  well  developed 
economic  life,  having  all  the  advantages  of  the  pro- 
tection of  their  States,  of  their  own  governmental 
organizations. 

Still  one  must  not  imagine  that  the  Polish 
countries  are  entirely  without  that  capital  which  is 
the  result  of  the  work  of  past  generations.  For  even 
though  it  is  impossible  to  calculate  the  exact  amount 


71 


of  the  reserve  of  capital,  -still  some  idea  can  be  given 
of  tlie  development  and  state  of  Polish  savings  be- 
fore the  war,  enough  at  least  to  partially  judge  the 
progress  of  its  accumulation. 

The  largest  and  economically  the  most  import- 
ant result  of  the  accumulation  of  savings  in  Poland 
is  the  evolution  of  the  co-operative  credit.  The  first 
distinctly  co-operative  societies  were  founded  fifty 
or  sixty  years  ago.  It  is  only  since  1900  however, 
that  they  have  contributed  in  such  a  decisive  way  to 
the  growth  of  savings,  that  their  development  has 
become  important.  That  is  to  say,  since  they  have 
included  the  population  of 'the  country  as  well  as 
that  of  the  cities^). 

During  the  period  between  lOOO  and  the  begin- 
ning of  the  war,  the  system  of  co-operative  credit 
and  savings  societies  in  the  Polish  countries  was 
greatly  extended  and  an  important  capital  added  to 
their  treasuries. 

The  figures  in  table  XVII  give  a  summary  of 


1)  Before  the  war,  the  organization  of  savings  in  the  Polish 
countries  had  no  uniform  character  because  in  each  part  of 
Poland  there  were  entirely  different  political,  economic  and 
judicial  conditions.  Thus  in  the  Kingdom  Poland,  in  Lithuania 
and  in  Ukraina  there  are  besides  the  States  savings  bank, 
societies  of  mutual  credit  and  of  small  credit  societies  and  in 
the  large  industrial  towns  of  the  Kingdom  of  Poland  manufac- 
turers industrial  credit  associations.  In  Austrian  Poland,  In 
Galicia  and  in  Silesia  of  Cieszyn,  there  are,  besides  the  savings 
banks,  a  system  of  credit  societies  (system  Schultze-Delitsch) 
and  rural  savings  and  credit  societies,  banks  of  the  Raeffeisen 
system,  patronized  by  the  autonomous  authorities.  The  system 
of  co-operative  credit  societies,  based  exclusively  on  the  Schul- 
tze-Delitsch  system  shows  the  greatest  uniformity  in  Prussian 
Poland.  Lack  of  space  prevents  my  retracing  the  home  develop- 
ment of  the  credit  co-operatives  in  Poland.  The  most  ample 
details  of  the  Polish  situation  are  found  in  a  pamphlet  published 
in  French,  in  1914,  at  the  time  of  the  International  Agricultural 
Exposition  at  Lyon:  "Les  Socletes  co-operatives  polonaises  de 
Credit,  leur  developpement  et  leur  etat  actual  dans  los  trols 
parties  de  la  Poloqne.  Leopol,  1914". 


72 


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73 

the  development  of  the  co-operative  credits  and 
savings  societies  in  the  Kingdom  of  Poland,  in  Gali- 
cia  and  in  Prussian  Poland  for  this  period. 

Only  the  Polish  co-operative  organizations  in 
Galicia  and  Prussian  Poland  are  included  in  this 
table.  In  Galicia  there  exists  besides,  in  the  eastern 
part  especially,  a  system  of  Ruthenian  co-operatives 
centralized  into  two  distinct  groups,  conforming  to 
the  political  differences  between  the  Galician  and 
Ruthenian  populations.  The  development  of  the 
Ruthenian  co-operative  movement,  before  the  war, 
was  much  less  rapid  than  that  of  Poland.  Still  the 
savings  brought  together  by  the  Ruthenian  co-ope- 
ratives reached  a  comparatively  high  figure  and 
increased  by  several  million  francs  the  total  sum 
entrusted  by  the  Galicians  to  their  savings  institut- 
ions. 

In  Prussian  Poland,  besides  the  splendidly 
developed  Polish  co-operatives,  there  is  also  a  Ger- 
man system  which  serves  the  German  population  of 
the  country. 

If  the  tables  for  Silesia  of  Cieszyn,  Lithuania, 
for  the  Ukraine,  (where  the  movement  is  weaker), 
and  for  the  groups  that  operate  separately  because 
of  political  or  nationalist  reasons,  should  be  added 
to  the  above  tables,  it  could  be  said,  with  sufficient 
probability,  that  at  the  beginning  of  the  war  the 
total  deposits  entrusted  to  the  co-operative  societies 
amounted  to  2  billion  francs.  This  is  an  enormous 
sum  when  one  takes  into  account  the  fact  that  this 
movement  has  been  entirely  developed  since  1900. 

Besides  the  close  network  of  co-operatives  that 
spread  over  the  Polish  countries  and  whose  principal 
mission  was  to  bring  about  systematic  saving  among 


74 

the  population,  there  were  many  other  financial 
groups  and  institutions  whose  purpose,  either  direct- 
ly or  indirectly,  was  to  accumulate  capital,  to  draw 
into  their  banks  the  savings  of  the  people. 

In  the  Kingdom  of  Poland,  in  Lithuania,  in 
White  Ruthenia,  in  Podolia  and  in  Volhynia,  before 
the  war,  there  were  Russian  savings  banks,  of  little 
value  to  the  national  economy.  Their  principal  aim 
was  to  supply  the  Russian  State  Treasury.  In  1910 
there  were  5681  of  these  Russian  savings  banks  in 
the  Kingdom  of  Poland,  in  which  more  than  416,000 
depositors  had  deposited  about  212  million  francs. 
In  the  six  governments  of  Lithuania  and  White 
Ruthenia  there  were  688  savings  banks  having 
526,000  depositors  and  340  million  francs,  while  in 
the  three  governments  of  the  Ukraine  (Volhynia, 
Podolia  and  Kief)  there  were  519  savings  banks  hav- 
ing 457,000  depositors  and  232  million  francs.  The 
total  amount  of  savings  deposited  in  Russian  savings 
banks  in  1910  was  nearly  800  million  francs  of  which 
nearly  600  million  went  in.to  banks  that  were  inside 
the  economic  territory  of  Poland.  In  the  Kingdom  of 
Poland  there  were  also  1350  township  savings  banks 
whose  united  deposits  amounted  to  seventy  million 
francs.  These  banks  served  chiefly  the  rural  popula- 
tion, independently  of  the  provincial  co-operatives 
of  savings  and  credit. 

In  Galicia  and  Silesia  of  Cieszyn  there  were 
branch  establishments  of  the  Austrian  postal 
savings,  which  directed  an  important  part  of  the 
savings  of  the  Galician  and  Silesian  population  to 
Vienna,  almost  without  profit  to  the  economic  life 
of  Poland. 

In  Prussian  Poland,  from  the  official  figures  in 


75 

1912,  there  were  271  public  and  private  savings 
banks,  having  1290  branch  establishments  in  which 
1,320,542  depositors  had  placed  about  1,330,000,000 
francs. 

These  different  financial  institutions,  coHDpe- 
ratives.  Communal  and  State  banks  are  spread  out 
over  all  the  economic  territory  of  Poland  and  have 
mostly  served  small  capital.  The  business  of  these 
institutions  came  almost  exclusively  from  the  poorer 
population. 

Because  of  these  financial  institutions,  that  had 
the  confidence  of  the  native  population,  the  small 
capital  amounted  to  about  4  billion  francs  —  a  very 
large  sum  when  one  bears  in  mind  the  conditions 
under  which  economic  life  in  Poland  had  to  be  de- 
veloped. The  greater  part  of  this  sum  could  not  be 
profitably  employed  for  the  country,  nor  with  the 
same  intensity  that  it  would  have  been  if  the  eco- 
nomic life  of  Poland  had  evolved  under  normal 
conditions.  Independent  of  the  accumulation  of 
small  capital  by  the  above  cited  institutions,  there 
developed  likewise,  during  the  last  twenty-four 
years,  an  accumulation  of  medium  and  large  capital 
in  private  stock  exchange  banks  and  in  private 
banks.  It  is  impossible  to  give  an  exact  survey  of 
this  activity  in  Poland  because  the  statistical  data 
are  either  insufficient  or  too  general.  Of  the 
different  parts  of  Poland  it  was  in  the  Kingdom 
that  stock  exchange  banks  prospered  best.  In  1912 
there  were  seven  of  these  banks  in  the  Kingdom 
with  a  capital  stock  of  about  210  million  francs,  and 
private  deposits  amounting  to  280--300  million 
francs.  This  sum,  of  course,  does  not  include  the 
important  sums  deposited  in  the  Warsaw  and  Lodz 


76 

branches  of  the  many  Russian  banks  that  drew  the 
savings  of  the  Polish  population,  nor  the  sums  de- 
posited in  private  banks  among  which  there  were 
many  banking  houses  well-known  in  trie  financial 
world  of  Europe. 

In  Lithuania  there  are  two  stocK  exchange 
banks  (banks  of  Wilno  and  Bialystock)  having  a 
capital  stock  of  14  million  francs,  with  aeposits, 
which  at  the  end  of  1912  amounted  to  about  90 
million  francs.  There  were  also,  before  the  war, 
many  branches  of  the  great  Petrograd  and  Moscow 
banks  in  Lithuania.  These  banks  secured  the  depos- 
its of  considerable  sums  from  the  richest  inhabitants 
of  the  country  but  it  is  impossible  to  give  the  figures. 

It  can  be  estimated,  however,  that  the  great 
stock  exchange  banks,  the  more  important  private 
banks  and  the  branches  of  the  Russian  banks 
operating  in  Russian  Poland,  in  Lithuania  and  in 
the  Ukraine  had  private  capital  amounting  to  more 
than  475  million  francs. 

The  characteristic  defects  of  the  Austrian 
statistical  publications  make  it  impossible  to  give 
the  activity  of  the  stock  exchange  banks  or  of  the 
important  private  banks  of  Galicia  and  Silesia.  But 
aside  from  the  six  local  stock  exchange  banks,  there 
were,  before  the  war,  about  fifteen  branch  establish- 
ments of  Vienna  and  Prague,  stock  exchange  banks 
whose  principal  aim  was  to  draw  the  Galician 
savings  into  their  home  banks.  They  supplied  the 
commerce  and  industry  of  western  Austria  and  up- 
held the  policies  of  the  Austrian  trusts  that  were  so 
harmful  to  Galician  interests.  It  can  be  estimated 
that  the  amount  of  medium  and  small  private  capital 


77. 

deposited  in  the  banks  of  this  part  of  Poland,  was 
at  least  two  hundred  million  francs. 

Unfortunately,  we  have  no  data  for  Prussian 
Poland,  worthy  of  confidence,  from  which  it  would 
be  possible  to  estimate  the  amount  of  capital  de- 
posited in  the  stock  exchange  and  private  banks. 
But  bringing  to  mind  the  great  development  of 
small  savings  in  Prussian  Poland,  it  may  be  taken 
for  granted  that  the  sum  total  of  deposits  in  these 
banks  is  also  important. 

So  the  total  figure  for  private  deposits  in  bank- 
ing institutions  operating  within  the  economic 
territory  of  Poland,  may  be  estimated  calculating 
prudently,  at  a  billion  francs  at  least. 

We  have  retraced,  as  well  as  the  insufficient 
and  incomplete  statistics  will  allow,  the  savings 
movement  in  the  Polish  countries  constituting  the 
economic  territory  of  Poland.  Because  of  the  de- 
veloped co-operatives,  because  of  the  vigorous  or- 
ganization of  savings,  there  has  been  amassed  in  the 
different  financial  institutions,  existing  in  Poland, 
an  important  reserve  of  capital  amounting  to  at  least 
five  billion  francs. 

But  it  must  not  be  imagined  that  all  this  sum 
could  be  used  for  the  future  development  of  the  Po- 
lish economic  organism.  An  important  part  of  this 
capital  is  indispensable  for  the  normal  provisioning, 
daily  one  might  say,  of  the  already  working  orga- 
nism. Only  what  is  left  from  that  can  be  given  over 
to  fhe  future  development  of  industry  and  com- 
merce, ways  of  communication,  of  new  work  centers 
that  will  make  it  possible  to  put  all  the  natural  and 
human  wealth  of  the  country,  up  to  Its  economic 
boundaries,  to  an  economic  use.    Therefore,  one  of 


VI 


78 

the  principal  tasks  of  the  future  economic  policies  of 
Poland  will  be  the  methodical  and  rational  acquire- 
ment of  foreign  capital. 

Certainly,  the  importation  of  foreign  capital  will 
involve  a  series  of  unfavorable  consequences  for  the 
country,  of  which  the  principal  one  will  be  the  ne- 
cessity of  giving  up  to  foreigners  a  great  part  of  the 
profits.  But  such  is  the  fate  or  misfortune  of  eco- 
nomically backward  countries,  that  are  notwith- 
standing, endowed  with  favorable  economic  ele- 
ments, that  they  cannot  advance  without  the  aid  of 
outside  capital. 

Such  was  before,  such  will  still  be,  after  the 
war,  the  situation  of  the  Polish  countries.  The 
action  tending  to  draw  foreign  capital  discloses  an 
economic  necessity. 


79 


VII. 

THE  ECONOMIC  BOUNDARIES  OF  POLAND 

The  economic  territory  of  Poland  extends  much 
farther  east  and  west  than  the  ethnographical  terri- 
tory. 

Although  it  is  very  difficult  to  fix  the  bound- 
aries of  the  economic  area  of  Poland  (before  the 
war,  no  study  had  been  made  of  this  question  and 
the  statistics  are  insufficient)  still  it  is  at  least 
possible  to  attempt  it  grosso  modo.  In  working  this 
out,  one  must  be  guided  by  the  unmistakable  ten- 
dencies of  the  economic  development  of  the  Polish 
territory,  keeping  in  mind  the  geographic  and  eco- 
nomic conditions  and  factors  that  still  hold  certain 
neighboring  regions  east  and  west  of  the  ethnogra- 
phical territory  of  Poland  to  the  fundamental  Polish 
body  and  that,  taken  together  with  it,  make  up  the 
economic  territory  of  Poland.  A  fundamental  in- 
dication of  this  is  furnished  by  the  limits  of  the 
principal  and  permanent  markets  of  Silesian-Polish 
coal.  This  coal  comes  ftrom  the  Silesian-Polish  coal 
basin  that  is  the  backbone  of  the  whole  producing 
organism  of  Poland,  the  only  source  of  energy 
supplying  Poland. 

Of  the  different  districts  of  the  Silesian-Polish 
coal  basin,  those  of  Dombrowa,  (in  the  Kingdom  of 
Poland)  and  Cracow  (in  Galicia)  arc  of  local  im- 
portance only.    The  output  of  the  district  of  Dom- 


80 


browa  before  the  war,  was  used  almost  entirely  in 
the  Kingdom  of  Poland,  95%  of  the  production,  that 
increased  yearly,  was  used  by  the  industry  and  small 
consumers.  Hardly  5%  reached  the  outskirts  of  eco- 
nomic Poland ;  that  is  to  Lithuania,  White  Ruthenia, 
Volhynia  and  Podolia. 

Likewise,  the  output  of  coal  in  the  district  of 
Cracow  was  used  entirely  on  the  local  markets, 
though  in  no  wise  supplying  the  demand,  and  it  was 
because  of  the  insufficient  development  of  this  coal 
district  that  Galicia  was,  before  the  war,  one  of  the 
principal  markets  for  the  coal  coming  from  the 
Upper  Silesia  and  the  Karwina-Ostrawa  districts. 

The  extent  of  the  market  supplied  by  fhe 
district  of  Karwina-Ostrawa  (in  Silesia  of  Cieszyn 
and  in  the  boundary  zone  of  Moravia)  was  much 
larger.  The  output  of  this  district  not  only  supplied 
all  the  local  industrial  establishments  but  furnished 
at  least  60%  of  the  fuel  used  by  the  metallurgical 
industry  in  the  Kingdom  of  Poland,  besides  sending 
great  quantities  into  Galicia. 

As  the  principal  coal  production  center  of 
Austria-Hungary,  this  district,  as  well,  sent  an 
immense  amount  of  coal  to  Bohemia,  Moravia, 
Hungary  and  Lower  Austria,  including  the  city  of 
Vienna.  Nevertheless,  Galicia  and  the  Kingdom  of 
Poland  were  important  and  ever  increasing  markets 
for  the  coal  district  of  Karwina-Ostrawa,  and  in  like 
measure,  this  coal  district  has  been  of  vast  import- 
ance to  the  economic  life  of  these  parts  of  Poland. 

The  coal  district  of  Upper  Silesia,  which  is  the 
largest  and  best  developed  part  of  the  Silesian- 
Polish  coal  fields,  supplied  a  very  large  market  be- 
fore the  war.  This  district  not  only  furnished  coal  to 


81 


the  Polish  economical  territory  where  its  use  was 
continually  growing  because  of  the  industrial  de- 
velopment of  the  country,  but  also  exported  great 
quantities  to  outside  markets.  On  these  supplement- 
ary markets  they  competed  against  lignite  in  Austria- 
Hungary,  against  English  coal  in  the  industrial 
districts  of  Berlin  and  Brandebourg,  and  against  the 
coal  of  Westphalia  and  the  Rhine  provinces  in 
different  southern  and  western  centers  of  the  Ger- 
man Empire.  All  these  markets,  however,  were  only 
comi)lementary.  It  was  the  economic  territory  of 
Poland  that  made  the  principal  market  for  the  coal 
of  the  Upper  Silesian  district:  that  part  of  Europe 
comprised  between  the  Baltic  and  the  Carpathians, 
the  Odra,  the  Polesie  and  the  Pinsk  swamps. 

A  study  of  the  railroad  transportation  statistics 
of  coal  going  out  of  the  district  of  Upper  Silesia, 
does  not  show  in  detail  the  importance  of  the  entire 
Silesian  -  Polish  coal  fields  to  economic  Poland, 
nor  gives  us  an  exact  outline  of  the  economic  bound- 
aries. But  such  a  study  does  show  in  a  most  strik- 
ing manfier  that  all  of  that  immense  portion  of  the 
European  continent,  enclosed  between  the  Baltic 
Sea  and  the  Carpathians,  between  the  Odra  and  the 
marshes  of  Pinsk,  makes  up  an  economic  territory 
of  one  body,  —  of  which  the  only  coal  center,  almost 
the  sole  origin  of  heat  energy,  are  the  Silesian-Polish 
coal  fields.  Outside  of  these  general  boundaries  are 
the  territories  that  make  up  the  complementary 
markets  for  the  Polish  coal  industry.  Those  markets 
do  not  depend  wholly  on  the  Polish  coal  center,  but 
constitute  grounds  of  rivalry  between  the  Polish 
coal  and  that  of  Westphalia,  England  and  Southern 
Russia. 


82 


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83 


In  table  XVIII  we  give  the  railroad  transport- 
ation statistics  for  the  coal  coming  from  Upper  Sile- 
sia, that  during  recent  years,  represented  two-thirds 
of  all  the  Polish  coal  production.  This  table,  which 
includes  the  period  of  twenty-five  years  preceding 
the  war,  shows  the  exportation  of  coal,  to  the 
different  markets  belonging  to  the  economic  terri- 
tory of  Poland. 

Note,  that  in  the  districts  of  Wroclaw  (Bre- 
slau)  and  Pomerania,  only  those  parts  situated  on 
the  right  bank  of  the  Odra,  (including  the  city  of 
Wroclaw  and  the  neighboring  industrial  centers, 
on  the  right  bank  of  the  Odra)  belong  to  the 
economic  territory  of  Poland.  So,  also,  only  one 
part  of  White  Ruthenia  and  the  Ukraine,  that  is, 
the  basins  of  the  Wilna,  of  the  Upper  Pripec  and 
the  Boh  can  rationally  be  considered  as  belonging 
to  the  Polish  economic  territory.  Thus  the  accurate 
table  of  the  shipments  of  fuel  by  rail  from  Upper 
Silesia  to  districts  comprised  within  the  economic 
boundaries  of  Poland,  differ  but  slightly  from 
the  preceding  table.  Besides,  the  Upper  Silesian 
collieries  sent  large  quantities  of  coal  by  water,  (by 
the  river  Przemsza)  into  Russian  Poland  and  Gali- 
cia,  by  narrow-gauge  railroads  into  near  by 
localities  of  their  own  district  and  by  wagon  to 
small  local  business.  Thus,  it  may  be  taken  for 
granted  that  the  actual,  annual  consumption  of 
Upper  Silesian  coal  by  the  industry  and  small  con- 
sumers inside  the  economical  territory  of  Poland  is 
shown,  with  enough  precision,  by  the  figures  of  our 
table.  In  other  words,  60  or  65%  of  the  total  coal 
production  of  Upper  Silesia  was  used  to  fill  the  fuel 
demand  in  the  territory  of  economic  Poland. 


84 


The  same  boundary  lines  —  the  Baltic  Sea  on 
the  north,  the  Odra  in  the  west,  the  Carpathians  on 
the  south,  and  the  marshes  of  Pinsk  on  the  cast  — 
limit  the  permanent  market  of  the  Polish  iron  pro- 
duction of  Upper  Silesia  and  the  Kingdom  of  Po- 
land. But  Galicia,  before  the  war,  was  obliged  to  get 
her  entire  supply  of  iron  products  from  Western 
Austria.  This  abnormal  condition  was  the  result  of 
the  Austrian  tariff  policies  that  took  into  no  consi- 
deration whatever,  the  needs  of  Galicia.  Galicia  con- 
stitutes a  natural  market  for  Polish  iron,  and  so  once 
more  we  repeat,  the  situation  before  the  war,  was 
abnormal  and  caused  great  loss  and  injury  to  this 
part  of  Poland. 

We  have  adopted  the  Odra  as  the  western 
boundary  of  Polish  territory.  This  results  first  of  all 
from  the  fact  that  all  the  right  bank,  also  certain 
localities  on  the  left  bank,  such  as  the  city  of  Wro- 
claw and  its  neighborhood  that  are  the  centers  of 
highly  developed  industry,  is  connected  economically 
with  the  ethnographical  territory  of  Poland.  All  this 
comparatively  narrow  belt  depends  almost  entirely 
on  the  Silesian-Poli'sh  coal  fields  for  fuel.  And  besid- 
es, the  iron  and  steel  works  of  Upper  Silesia  can 
furnish  all  the  iron  used  in  this  region.  The  industry 
of  this  region,  especially  the  mechanical  industry, 
was  carried  on  chiefly  for  eastern  buyers.  For  the 
products  of  this  part  of  Upper  Silesia  were  sold,  not 
on  the  left  bank  of  the  Odra,  on  territory  that  tended 
economically  toward  the  powerful  industrial  center 
of  Berlin,  but  in  regions  to  the  right  of  the  Odra: 
Upper  Silesia,  the  Grand  Duchy  of  Posnania,  West- 
ern Prussia  and  in  part  Eastern  Prussia.  It  must 
also  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  Odra  whose  source  is 


85 


near  the  Silesian-Polish  coal  field  is  the  most  natur- 
al and  shortest  waterway  from  Upper  Silesia  to  the 
Baltic  sea ;  that  its  principal  tributary,  the  Warta, 
flows  almost  entirely  through  Polish  country,  ethno- 
graprically  Polish ;  that,  in  a  word,  the  Odra,  is  an 
important  channel  of  communication  for  economic 
Poland  and  that  it  is  indispensable  to  keep  this  water 
course  in  the  economic  organism  of  Poland. 

A  glance  at  a  geographical  map  shows  that  the 
Baltic  Sea  forms  the  northern  boundary  of  the 
economic  territory  of  Poland,  notably  from  the 
mouth  of  the  Odra  to  that  of  the  Niemen.  The  great 
rivers,  the  Odra,  the  Vistula  and  the  Niemen,  that 
together  with  their  principal  tributaries  flow  through 
the  most  important  territory  of  economic  Poland, 
form  a  foundation  for  the  development  of  a  system 
of  waterways  that  will  embrace  all  the  territory  of 
economic  Poland  and  will  become  one  of  the  princi- 
pal factors  of  the  future  growth  of  Poland. 

Because,  for  the  life  and  economic  development 
of  every  state  organism,  it  is  of  the  greatest  import- 
ance to  be  connected  by  sea  with  the  world  markets. 
And  so,  there  is  not  in  Europe  a  country  that  does 
not  try  either  to  open  a  way  to  the  sea  or  to  extend 
the  coast  line.  In  the  last  century,  the  principal 
problems  of  European  politics  were  centered  on 
questions  concerning  access  or  control  of  one  or 
another  sea. 

It  is  the  same  for  economic  Poland :  access  to 
the  sea  and  to  maritime  routes  that  will  connect 
her  with  the  markets  of  the  West,  South  and  North 
of  Europe,  as  well  as  those  beyond  the  sea,  is  a 
supreme  necessity,  these  countries  being  important 
markets  as  well    as    reservoirs  of  natural    wealth. 


86 


Poland  is  sufficiently  developed  to  be  able,  in  certain 
domains  of  production,  (in  agricultural  products 
and  in  agricultural  industries)  to  operate  with 
success  on  the  European  markets.  But  these  great 
agricultural  territories,  belonging  to  economic  Po- 
land, have  been  cut  off  from  maritime  ports  and 
ocean  routes  and  in  consequence  Polish  agricultural 
and  industrial  products  have  been  entirely  absent 
from  the  markets  of  Western,  Southern  and  North- 
ern Europe  or  playing  only  a  very  insignificant  role. 

The  access  to  the  sea,  so  necessary  for  the  agri- 
cultural products,  is  likewise  one  of  the  principal 
conditions  of  the  future  development  of  large  in- 
dustry in  Poland.  It  is  only  by  maritime  routes  that 
the  centers  of  textile  industry  will  be  able  to  get 
sufficent  supplies  from  Egypt  and  South  America; 
it  is  only  by  maritime  routes  reuniting  the  metallur- 
gical centers  of  Poland  with  the  rich  iron-ore  mines 
of  France  and  Sweden,  that  the  development  of  the 
Polish  iron  industry  will  be  assured ;  it  is  only  by 
economic  maritime  routes  that,  in  the  future,  Polish 
industrial  products  will  be  able  to  make  their  appear- 
ance on  the  European  and  overseas  markets  and 
successfully  compete  with  the  products  of  those 
countries. 

But  the  essential  thing  for  the  economic  future 
of  Poland  is  her  union  by  maritime  routes,  with 
the  natural  wealth  centers  of  Europe  and  the  col- 
onies. The  future  normal  development  of  such  im- 
portant branches  of  Polish  industry,  as  the  metal 
and  textile  industries,  is  dependent  on  the  question 
of  opening  for  Poland  a  free  way  to  the  sea. 

The  geographical  situation  of  the  countries 
making  up  economic  Poland  is  such  that  their  only 


87 


maritime  boundary  is  situated  on  the  north:  that 
part  of  the  Baltic  coast  from  the  mouth  of  the  Nie- 
men  to  that  of  the  Odra.  Although  this  coast  line  is 
not  very  advantageous,  it  has  several  seaports  which, 
though  small,  are  still  natural  outlets  to  the  world 
markets.  Among  the  most  important  ports,  are 
Szczecin  (Stettin)  at  the  mouth  of  ttie  Odra, 
Gdansk  (Dantzig)  at  the  mouth  of  the  Vistula;  and 
Krolewiec  (Koenigsberg)  at  the  mouth  of  the  Pre- 
gola.  Among  the  ports  of  less  importance  are ;  Klaj- 
peda  at  the  mouth  of  the  Niemen,  Pilawa,  Elblag, 
Use  at  the  mouths  of  the  Slupa,  Kolobrzeg  (Kol- 
berg),  and  Swinoujscie  (Swinemuende). 

Table  XIX,  showing  in  tons  the  quantity  of 
merchandise  that  was  shipped  in  or  out  of  these 
ports,  gives  an  idea  of  the  development  of  sea  trade. 


Harbors 

1890 

1900 

1910 

1913 

Klajpeda 

391,937 

310,892 

438,809 

415,700 

Pi!awa 

282,483 

356,754 

120,120 

96,081 

Kr61ewiec  (Koenigsberg)  695,241 

523,923 

1,257,187 

1,075,269 

Gdansk   (Dantzing) 

931,391 

1,053,774 

1,372,698 

1,532,590 

VS6 

59,607 

128,397 

138,808 

Kolobrzeg 

76,372 

67,326 

Swinoujficfe 

259,625 

480,986 

476,424 

852,450 

Szczecin   (Stettin) 

2,238,267 

2,327,473 

2,567,443 

3.165,794 

So,  of  the  Baltic  ports  of  economic  Poland, 
during  recent  years,  Szczecin  alone  has  shown  an 
important  commercial  movement.  Szczecin,  which 
is  the  most  westerly  of  these  ports  and  covers  the 
commerce  of  the  basin  of  the  Odra,  the  fertile  count- 
ries of  Pomerania,  the  Grand  Duchy  of  Posnania, 
Middle  Silesia  and  in  part.  Lower  and  Upper  Sile- 


88 


sia,  which  was  a  territory  belonging  entirely  to 
Prussia  before  the  war,  hardly  felt  the  terrible  ef- 
fects of  the  division  of  the  country  into  three  dis- 
tinct political  parts.  The  development  of  the  other 
ports,  especially  Gdansk,  Krolewiec,  and  Klajpeda 
that  drained  the  commerce  of  the  basins  of  the  Vis- 
tula and  the  Niemen,  was  greatly  hindered  by  hav- 
ing large  parts  of  the  country  separated  from 
them  by  a  customs-frontier:  by  the  peculiar  trans- 
port policies  of  the  Russian  government  that  tended 
to  favor  the  ports  of  Libawa  and  Rewel  and  neglect 
the  waterways  of  the  Polish  countries  in  the  Rus- 
sian Empire. 

The  small  development  of  the  Baltic  ports 
(with  the  exception  of  Szczecin)  is  a  direct  result 
of  the  division  of  the  Polish  economic  orgainism  into 
three  distinct  economic  and  political  parts.  The 
natural  function  of  these  ports  would  be  to  drain 
all  Polish  territory.  But,  cut  into  three  detached 
fragments,  this  organism  has  become  partially  par- 
alyzed and  one  of  the  most  manifest  symptoms  is 
precisely  the  slow  commercial  development  of  these 
Baltic  ports  of  economic  Poland. 

The  union  of  economic  Poland,  by  putting  an 
end  to  the  abnormal  situation  resulting  from  the 
dismemberment  of  its  organism  into  three  different 
parts  with  different  politico-economic  conditions 
would,  without  doubt,  begin  a  new  period  of 
development  and  growth  for  the  Baltic  ports. 

The  eastern  boundary  of  economic  Poland  is 
geographically  determined  by  the  marshes  of 
Pinsk:  thus  the  eastern  part  of  economic  Poland  in- 


89 


dudes  all  of  Lithuania,  almost  all  of  Volhynia  and 
Podolia  and  the  narrow  western  zone  of  the  Minsk 
and  Witebsk  regions.  All  this  part  of  Poland  is 
chiefly  agricultural  and  forms  an  important  center 
of  agricultural  production.  For  exportation  these 
provinces  are  connected  (to  a  certain  degree)  with 
western  industrial  Europe ;  for  these  -regions  tend 
towards  the  Baltic  ports,  that  will  connect  them  by 
'sconomical  ocean  routes  with  the  European  cereal 
markets  and  the  markets  of  agricultural  products 
(sugar  and  alcohol). 

In  fact,  the  eastern  regions  of  economic  Poland, 
considered  as  agricultural  countries,  can  find  no 
natural  market  east  of  the  Dnieper  and  the  Dwina, 
in  central  Russia,that  is  also  an  agricultural  country. 
Lithuania,  White  Ruthenia,  Volhynia  and  Podolia 
can  hardly  dispose  of  their  agricultural  products 
except  in  the  industrial  regions  of  Poland  where 
there  are  many  large  towns  and  populous  industrial 
centers  or  on  the  markets  of  western  Europe,  to- 
wards which  by  the  Vistula,  the  Odra  and  the  Nie- 
men  the  Baltic  ports  tend. 

On  the  other  hand,  these  agricultural  regions 
form  a  natural  market  for  Polish  industrial  products 
from  the  central  and  western  districts. 

There  are  also  agricultural  regions  in  the  west 
and  nothwest,  (West  and  East  Prussia,  the  Grand 
Duchy  of  Posen),  whose  products  supplied  in  part 
the  industrial  regions  of  economic  Poland,  and 
partly  sought  markets  in  western  Europe.  These 
countries  also  provide  markets  for  the  industrial 
products  of  Upper  Silesia  and  Wroclaw.  In  a  word, 
as  centers  of  agricultural  production  and  as  centers 


90 


of  consumption,  these  countries  are  closely  con- 
nected to  the  principal  centers  of  industrial  produc- 
tion in  economic  Poland. 

Thus,  in  a  general  way,  may  the  boundaries  of 
the  economic  territory  of  Poland  be  outlined. 


91 


CONCLUSION. 

The  part  of  the  European  continent,  bounded 
on  the  west  by  the  Odra,  on  the  east  by  the  marsh- 
es of  Pinsk,  on  the  north  by  the  Baltic  Sea,  and  on 
the  south  by  the  Carpathian  mountains,  constitut- 
ing economic  Poland,  in  general  yields  nothing, 
in  that  which  concerns  her  capacity  for  developing 
economic  independence,  to  those  states  of  Europe 
which,  before  the  war,  were  great  growing,  thriving, 
economic  organisms. 

In  fact,  we  have  seen  that  economic  life  in  the 
territories  of  economic  Poland,  divided  among  the 
three  sharing  powers,  Russia,  Prussia  and  Austria, 
could  not  develop,  except,  under  very  unfavorable 
conditions,  chiefly  because  of  the  economic  policies 
of  these  states :  heterogenous  policies  with  widely 
different  tendencies,  policies  that  knowingly  neglect- 
ed and  even  expressly  opposed  the  economic  in-- 
terests  of  the  Polish  centers  of  production  on  Polish 
territory.  However,  in  spite  of  these  unfavorable 
conditions  the  Polish  countries  reached,  before  the 
war,  a  high  level  of  economic  development  with 
important  industrial  centers  both  for  output  and 
manufacture. 

This  economic  development,  in  spite  of  all 
obstacles,  shows  that  the  Polish  countries  possess 
the  necessary  factors  of  modern  production,  natural 
wealth  and  an  enormous  reserve  of  man-power.  The 
reserve    of    capital    only,    is    less    favorable.    The 


92 


economic  policies  to  which  the  country  was  sub- 
jected was  unfavorable  to  the  accumulation  of 
capital  and  Polish  industry  was  obliged,  in  great 
measure,  to  import  foreign  capital. 

Poland  has  the  natural  factors  upon  which 
modern  production  in  the  larger  sense  of  the  word 
depends,  yet  has  had  neither  the  rapid  nor  large 
ecomomical  development  that  she  could  have  had 
possessing  such  natural  wealth  and  reserve  of  man- 
power. 

The  complete  expansion  of  economic  life  in 
Poland  has  been  blocked  by  political  and  politico- 
economic  factors  that  defeated  the  favorable  natural 
influences.  The  customs  frontiers  that  have  broken 
the  economic  organism  of  Polamd  into  three  frag- 
ments, have  prevented  the  full  realization  of  the 
value  of  the  natural  wealth  and  of  the  rational  dis- 
tribution of  labor.  Moreover,  there  could  be  no 
closed  home  market,  except  in  Russian  Poland.  The 
other  regions  became  markets  for  the  industrial 
products  of  Germany  and  Austria. 

Also,  great  territories  of  economic  Poland,  in- 
cluded before  the  war  in  Russia  and  Austria,  were 
separated  by  custom  frontiers  from  their  natural 
ports  on  the  Baltic,  that  is  to  say,  from  access  to 
the  ocean  routes.  This  prevented  the  rational  pro- 
visioning of  industries  using  raw  materials  from  a- 
broad,  for  example,  cotton.  This  also  prevented  the 
development  of  industries  that  could  have  been  fed 
by  (raw  material  coming  from  the  north  and  west 
of  Europe.  To  be  economical  these  importations 
should  have  been  transported  by  maritime  routes, 
by  the  Baltic  ports  and  from  there  by  waterways 
towards  the  interior  of  the  country.  But,  the  customs 


93 


barriers  that  cut  Poland  into  three  parts  and  incor- 
porated them  into  Prussia,  Russia  and  Austria, 
made  the  use  of  these  lines  of  transport  almost  im- 
possible or  very  considerably  raised  the  price  of  the 
raw  material  thus  imported,  to  the  prejudice  of  the 
vital  economic  interests  of  the  Polish  countries.  In 
a  word,  the  political  dism.emberment  of  Poland,  the 
division  of  the  Polish  economic  territory,  between 
the  three  sharing  states,  caused  a  succession  of  ob- 
stacles and  drawbacks  that  taken  together,  preven- 
ted the  Polish  coutries  from  economic  expansion, 
in  conformity  with  their  natural  wealth,  their 
reserve  of  man-power,  with  the  geographical  situa- 
tion and  the  economic  culture  of  Poland.  So,  the 
fundamental  condition  of  the  economic  revival  of 
Poland  after  the  war,  the  only  condition  that  can 
guarantee  the  normal  working  and  development  of 
economic  life,  is  the  abolishment  of  the  mutilating 
frontiers,  the  customs  barriers  that  isolate  the 
economic  parts  of  Poland,  one  from  the  other ;  it  is 
the  constitution  of  its  different  fragments  into  one 
home  market,  open  to  its  industry  and  its  com-* 
merce;  it  is,  in  a  word,  the  union  of  the  Polish 
countries  inside  their  economic  boundaries,  into  one 
political  and  economic  organism,  into  a  state, 
united  and  independent. 

THE      END. 


I 


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